Smash the Control Machine
by Plague's Vengeance
Summary: "I get it, you're emotionally unstable and dangerous. Did you forget that I'm ten times more unstable, dangerous, and not to mention crazy?" She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "'Course I know what I'm getting into, I'm homicidal not stupid, Bruce, God." Bruce sighed in a subdued way and looked at her with a bemused expression, "You could've just said 'I love you', Piper'
1. Chapter 1: When Can I Start

**AN: Alright, I had randomly started rereading this story and the more times I read it, the more I started disliking Piper's character. Piper had started out as a pretty awesome concept, but I think I failed to portray that concept in a way that did the original concept justice, so I've decided to rewrite the story and change Piper's character quite a bit. I hope the new and improved version of the story and Piper will be as well received as the old version was. **

**DISCLAIMER for the ****_WHOLE _****story: Don't own jack squat, except for the OC(s). I'm not making any money off of this as it's just purely for entertainment purposes. **

**PS - I'm also taking some serious liberties with certain things such as how Fury's left eye got injured since it was never actually specified in the movie. I know how it got injured in the comics and such, but that doesn't really seem to fit with the movie. I apologize in advance to any purists or whatever.**

**PSS - Title inspired by the song _Smash the Control Machine _by Otep.**

* * *

"Are you sure it's a good idea to bring her in, sir?" Maria Hill asked cautiously as she followed her superior down the brightly lit hallway, the thick soles of her boots making a soft thudding sound with each step down the linoleum hall.

Nick Fury, director of the secret government agency S.H.I.E.L.D., glanced briefly over his right shoulder at the dark haired woman before looking forward again, "She would be a valuable asset to the agency, Agent Hill." He stated calmly, though his mouth tightened slightly in a small hint of irritation.

"I understand that, sir." The high-ranking agent replied as she and Fury came to a stop in front of a thick, heavy looking metal door with an retinal scanner and hand scanner, "It's just that we'll already have to worry about The Hulk, are you sure you want to bring in another unstable person. Especially _her_?"

"We have no choice." Fury said flatly then he put his hand on the scanner before letting the retinal scanner sweep across his good eye.

A soft beep sounded from the scanners followed by multiple soft clicks and whirls from inside the metal door. Maria swallowed thickly and rested her hand on the gun at her waist when a final click and a soft, pneumatic hiss signaled the metal door opening.

* * *

Agent Hill sucked in a sharp breath of air when she laid eyes on the hunched over figure sitting in the middle of the heavily built metal cage in the middle of the concrete room, restrained to what bore an almost uncanny resemblance to the electric chair with chains that were nearly as thick as her wrist crossing over the figure's body.

Gunmetal gray eyes suddenly snapped open, the slit pupils narrowing into thin slashes, and Agent Hill tightened the grip she had on the butt of her gun when those eyes fixated on her with a predatory intensity from behind long, shaggy silver-gray hair. Fury reached out and put his hand on the younger agent's shoulder, causing the dark-haired woman to jump with a small gasp. A muffled raspy, wheezing sound emitted from the woman chained to the chair in the metal cage and Agent Hill felt her face flush in embarrassment and anger even as goose bumps broke out across her flesh at the sound.

Fury nodded towards the closed door, turning towards the restrained woman before he could see Agent Hill move to stand guard as he had silently instructed her to do. He stepped closer to the cage and clasped his hands behind his back, staring at the shaking and laughing woman sitting in the middle of it impassively. The straitjacket she wore was barely visible underneath the chains that kept her shackled to the chair, the body underneath hidden completely from view, but Fury didn't need to see under the straitjacket and chains to know she was whiplash lean with hard muscles coiled tightly around her slender frame. Her hair was a dull shade of silver-gray like silver shavings and a long tangled mess that hung around her face in straggly strands though her hair did nothing to hide the metal mask covering the lower part of her face and mouth.

"Piper Ann Lennart." The S.H.I.E.L.D. director intoned impassively as he locked eyes with the caged woman, "It's been a long time."

* * *

Piper Lennart smiled from behind the metal face mask and licked the small bead of blood that welled up when the skin of her chapped lips split.

"Nicholas Joseph Fury..." She cooed back in an almost teasing tone, her voice a harsh rasping growl from lack of use, "How's the eye, Nicky? Come to have me to take that last five percent of your sight away?" Piper chortled to herself in a distinctly feline-like manner when she saw a muscle tick in the bald-man's cheek, "I'll take that as a 'no' then. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, Director Fury? Surely it wasn't to reminisce over such _fond_ memories, hmm?"

Fury locked his jaw and glared coldly at the woman, "The world is in grave danger, Miss Lennart."

Piper gave a disinterested snort and blinked once languidly at him, "The world is** _always_ **in danger, Director. What does that have to do with me?"

"The Avengers' Initiative." The tall man replied coolly, watching as the woman's cat-like eyes sparked with interest.

"And here I thought you didn't make the same mistake twice, _tsk-tsk_, Director." Piper purred in her raspy voice, her eyes glittering dangerously from behind her shaggy hair as she straightened as best she could in her restrained position, "Alright, Nicky, you've got my attention. I only hope you don't live to regret it."

* * *

Shifting forward slightly in her metal chair, Piper clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and shook her head in a mock admonishing way as she stared at Director Fury standing outside her cage in front of her. Her gunmetal gray cat eyes were speculative as she contemplated the situation the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. had informed her of with the vaguest of details. He had skimmed over what had happened with the Tesseract and Loki at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters three nights ago and had spent most of his breath attempting to recruit her for his crusade to get the little cube of alien power back.

"You want me to help save the world from a supercharged god from Norse mythology?" The mutant woman drawled, her voice muffled from her mask, "Oh, Nicky, you flatter me so sweetly, but you've lost your goddamned mind if you think I'm going to help you."

Fury locked his jaw and leaned forward, glaring heatedly at the obviously amused woman shackled in front of him, "Do you think this is a game, Lennart? We're talking a world-wide security risk. Life on Earth as we know it could end if we don't get that cube back!"

Piper tossed her head and looked off to the side with an indifferent expression, "What do I care? The world turned its back on me, it seems only fair that I do the same thing." She suddenly looked back at Fury and leaned forward, her gray eyes sparking maliciously, "Say I did agree to help you just to get out of this prison, what's stopping me from sinking my claws in your back as soon as it's turned and throwing my lot in with the bad guy? From what you just told me, it seems he's more likely to win despite the little band of Merry Men you're trying to put together."

"You won't." Fury said after a moment and he leaned back, crossing his bulky arms over his chest and looking at her with a smug expression, "You're a feral psychopathic sociopath, but you're not stupid. You won't join up with Loki, because you know all that bastard would offer you is slavery and if there's anything you hate more than humanity, it's being controlled."

"A choke collar is still the same, no matter how prettily you dress it up, Director." Piper stated drily with a haughty toss of her head, her gray eyes flashing red for a brief moment as her ire rose, "The way I see it, I'm either a slave to some power hungry god with an inferiority complex or I'm _your_ attack pet, only let off my chain when it suits _you._"

"No, what I'm offering you a single chance to redeem yourself and earn your freedom from this hell hole you've been in for the past twenty-three years." Fury replied calmly, shrewdly watching the woman's expression, "A chance to wipe your record clean, a band new slate, as if your bloody past had never happened. All you have to do is help S.H.I.E.L.D. nail this bastard and get the cube back, then you can be free. Or you can rot in this room until you either die or Loki finds you, it's your choice."

"I'll be free? Truly free?"

"Yes, no more concrete walls or metal cages." Fury responded with a small incline of his head, "You'll be relocated to a remote area of your choosing and of course you'll be monitored to ensure that you aren't a danger to humanity."

"Of course..." The shackled woman murmured and she stared at him narrowly, before looking at the ground with her head tilted slightly to the side as she weighed her options in her mind.

Suddenly she lifted her head up and her gray eyes flared a deep, bloody red and her lips curled into a bloodthirsty smile beneath the metal mask.

"When do I start?"

* * *

**Author's Note: Alrighty, sorry it's so short, but this is just kinda like a prelude/prologue type thing, but I hope it's okay for the first chapter of Paying The Piper Rewritten. We'll get a better description of how Piper's physical, mental, and emotional changes in the next few chapters, but until then I hope you like the new version of her!**

**EDIT 11/8/2013: I edited how long Piper was imprisoned since I incorrectly did the math based on how old she is, which will be revealed in a later chapter. For now lets suffice to say she is older than she looks. If anyone was wondering the original time she spent imprisoned was 13 years and has now been update to 23 years instead.**


	2. Chapter 2: Postively Aquiver

Gunmetal gray eyes narrowed to tiny slits when they were assaulted by sunlight for the first time in over twenty years, but Piper reveled in the slight pain. She tilted her head towards the sun, practically purring as the rays warmed her fully exposed face. A faint breeze brushed across her body, sifting through her thick, messy hair and this time she really did purr, the sound thrumming from her body similar to the sound a well-maintained car engine might make. Closing her eyes to savor the feeling of the wind and sun on her skin, she snapped them open and took a running start, leaping high into the air. She heard a sharp inhale come from the female S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that had accompanied Fury to her personally hell followed by the sound of a gun being cocked, but Piper ignored it as she landed lithely on her feet in a crouch. A Cheshire cat smile spread across her face as she opened her hands and peered down at the unharmed sparrow cupped in palms.

Fury narrowed his good eye as he watched the mutant woman gently brush her claw-tipped thumb over the sparrow's breast feathers with a surprising amount of gentleness, given her well-earned and bloody reputation. He reached out and placed his hand on Agent Hill's wrist, putting subtle pressure on the joint and the dark-haired woman slowly lowered the gun she was pointing at the back of the gray-haired woman's head.

"Don't bother shooting her, Agent Hill." Fury commented lowly, even though he knew the mutant woman crouched a few feet in front of him and Agent Hill could still hear him, "Not only would it be a waste of bullets, it would only serve to piss her off."

Ignoring the two humans behind her, Piper sighed happily at the softness of the feathers on her calloused thumb, the tiny bird's heartbeat fluttering rapidly beneath the digit like sweet music to her ears. Carefully opening her hands completely, Piper watched intently as the sparrow took flight and soared high into the sky. After the bird had disappeared from even her keen eyesight, the gray-haired woman turned her attention to the ground, running her hands over the grass before digging her clawed fingers into the earth.

"Sir, we really should be leaving if we want to arrive at the base before nightfall." Agent Hill murmured tensely, her gaze never leaving the mutant woman and her gun remaining tightly clasped in her hand despite Fury's warning. It made her feel marginally safer, no matter how foolish she knew that sentiment was.

"Miss Lennart has been locked away for over two decades. Give her a few minutes to reacclimate herself to the outside world." Fury replied slowly, his voice still low, "It is after all, in our best interests to keep her happy." He paused and narrowed his good eye as he corrected his statement, "Or at least mildly content."

Suddenly, Piper straightened and pivoted on her bare heel in a smooth movement to face the two humans with a wicked grin, her fanged teeth gleaming in the sunlight.

"Oh Nicky, you say that as if I need an excuse to go on a murderous and bloody rampage." She cooed almost suggestively as she sauntered over to them, stopping when Agent Hill leveled her gun at her head again.

A raspy, cough-like noise that sound suspiciously like feline laughter escaped Piper's mouth and she held her arms out, grinning a Cheshire cat smile and staring at the other woman as if daring her to pull the trigger.

"That's enough." Fury barked with an impassive expression, his eyes hard and unyielding as he glared at the gray-haired woman, "Miss Lennart, unless you want to return to your cell and chains, we need to leave."

Piper heaved a disappointed sigh and pouted at the bald man reproachfully, "Such a killjoy. Fine, fine, I'll behave for now. But honestly, Nicky, I thought you'd have prepared your agent a little better." She eyed the dark-haired woman with predatory glee, "I can't help but get a little excited. She's just so jumpy and her heart is beating so fast. Like a little mouse. You know how much I like mice, Nicky."

"_Now_, Miss Lennart." Fury ordered coldly and he stalked passed her without a second glance.

Piper cast one last wistful look at Agent Hill before spinning on her heel and easily loping after the tall man, leaving the dark-haired woman to take up the rear position with her gun still out.

"Oh, hey, Nicky, would you mind if we made a pit stop in Canada before we head to your secret love nest?"

Fury gritted his teeth and remained silent, but the sound of Piper's raspy, feline laughter was all the proof he need that she had heard him grind his teeth. He could already feel a headache throbbing behind his eyes and he hadn't even had to deal with Tony Stark yet.

* * *

Piper stared out the window of the Quinjet with an almost childlike glee that would have been endearing if the expression was on anyone else. As it was, Fury and Agent Hill had stoically ignored her for most of the trip, the S.H.I.E.L.D. director only speaking when the pilot found himself unable to ask the feral woman for the coordinates she required after finding himself paralyzed by her predatory gaze of curiosity.

Now though, they were on their way to what was apparently S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mobile base located somewhere top secret and Piper was eagerly staring out the window, more than content to be wearing her own clothes instead of the uncomfortable uniform she had to wear while incarcerated. Placing the palm of her hand flat against the window, Piper gently tapped her black claws against the glass and idly wondered how upset Fury would be if she scratched it. After a few moments of consideration, the gray-haired woman decided to test her idea another time and sauntered back over to her seat, more specifically the ratty, military-grade gunny sack she had picked up from the cabin hidden in the Canadian wilderness.

Idly listening to the tantalizing sounds of the three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' heartbeats, Piper dug through the gunny sack until she found a small, velvet bag that had shifted to the very bottom. Piper held the bag in the palm of her hand, staring at it contemplatively. It had been just over twenty-three years since she had seen the contents of the bag, the last time being a few days before she was captured and incarcerated by the one-eyed man sitting across from her. After a few moments, Piper carefully placed the velvet bag back into the gunny sack without opening it then she turned to look at Fury. She scrutinized the tall man unabashedly, taking in the lines on his forehead and at the corner of the eye she could see that hadn't been quite so prominent two decades ago. The scars visible above and below the eye patch were also different. Piper smiled to herself; she remembered when they had been bleeding gouges.

Almost as if he had sensed her thoughts, Fury glared at her darkly, his closed-off expression just as cold and uninviting as it had been all those years ago. A lesser person would have pissed their pants at the look he was giving her, but Piper merely smiled and blew him kiss, wiggling her claw-tipped fingers at him mockingly.

"ETA five minutes, sir." Agent Hill called out from where she was sitting with the pilot Piper had petrified in the cockpit of the Quinjet.

Fury stood up and walked over to the open cockpit, leaving the feral mutant alone in the seating area. Lifting her legs up onto the bench seat, Piper crossed her legs and idly began picking at the short black claws on her bare feet. Quickly growing bored, she began to hum a quiet tune she'd heard years ago.

Fury narrowed his eyes and glanced over at the woman sitting behind him, humming and nodding her head to what sounded like a song from _The Sound of Music_. Closing his eyes, Fury turned back around to face the front of the cockpit and clasped his hands behind his back, slowly counting to ten in his head as the feral woman behind him continued to hum lightly.

* * *

They reached the S.H.I.E.L.D. base by late afternoon and Piper hopped lithely out of the Quinjet as soon as the ramp opened enough without bothering to wait for the it to completely lower with her gunny sack over her shoulder. She was eager to explore her new surroundings and terrorize everyone around her, her heart thrumming in her chest with anticipation. The sharp, salty smell of ocean water assaulted her sensitive nose and she sneezed, then snarled aggressively as her excitement evaporated in an instant when she heard the sound of waves lapping against metal over the noisiness of the aircraft carrier she found herself on.

Lips still curled in a snarl of displeasure, Piper pivoted on her heel and glared murderously at Fury as he walked down the Quinjet's ramp, Agent Hill trailing after him like a puppy.

"Is there a problem, Miss Lennart?" The S.H.I.E.L.D. director asked impassively, but Piper could see the satisfaction in his remaining eye and his scent practically exuded triumph.

Gunmetal gray eyes flashing red, Piper gave him a sweet smile filled with venom, "I didn't know your love nest was in the middle of the ocean, Nicky."

"Need-to-know information." Fury replied coolly, his visible brow quirking upward slightly in an expression of superiority.

_'I'm going to blind your other eye, Nicky.'_ The feral mutant thought murderously without losing her smile,_ 'With my teeth this time.' _

"Of course." Piper murmured, her smile gaining a sharpness that was distinctly hungry in the most predatory of ways and caused Agent Hill to unholster her gun again, "I suppose it's such a good thing that I'll be on my best behavior, it would be such a shame if I did something that got me thrown overboard."

"I'm glad you're so understanding, Miss Lennart." Fury responded with such cool amiableness it set Piper's teeth on edge, "Agent Hill will show to your quarters as well as the bridge. If you'll excuse me, I have another recruit to talk to."

Piper narrowed her eyes at Fury's back as he practically sauntered back up the ramp of the Quinjet, her smile curling into a snarl of rage as soon as the ramp closed behind him. She took several steps back from the Quinjet, eyes still narrowed viciously as she watched it take off, back towards what she assumed was the continent of America. Hissing under her breath in a distinctly feline manner as her curiosity got the better of her, Piper stalked over to the edge of the aircraft carrier, clutching the strap of her gunny sack in one hand as she crouched down. Her upper lip quivered with the urge to snarl in distaste as she stared down at the frothy water lapping at the hull of the carrier like an eager puppy likes an affectionate hand. She hated the ocean. And most other bodies of water, large or small.

Running her tongue along her double set of sharp canines, she straightened and took several steps back before pivoting on her heel to face the tense Agent Hill, who had reholstered her gun, but had her hand resting on the butt of her gun.

"Do you sleep with that thing attached to your hand? Never mind, of course you do. You probably treat that thing more reverently than a vibrator." Piper asked mockingly, chortling in her cat-like way at her own comment and continued before the dark-haired woman could retort, "So, _Agent_ Hill, where will I be sleeping during my stay on Nicky's love boat?"

The dark-haired woman clenched her jaw and glared daggers at the slyly grinning woman as she held her arm out for the feral woman to walk in front of her, "This way, ma'am."

_'Ooh, a smart little mouse.'_ Piper thought with a soft purr as she walked ahead of the female agent, _'Never turn your back on a predator. Especially one that'll take the first opportunity to chew on it.'_

* * *

Piper looked around the sparsely furnished room in amusement and distaste as she was reminded of the prison cell she had left only hours earlier.

_'Ah, to trade one cage for another. Story of my life.'_ She mused sardonically to herself as she dropped her gunny sack on the bed, _'At least there's a bed instead of a mattress made of foam. Oh look, there's also a dresser and a nightstand with an actual lamp. I've definitely traded up, I have.'_

Heaving a put upon sigh, Piper turned to look at Agent Hill hovering in the door and she placed her hands on her hips with her lips forming a convincingly disappointed pout.

"Well, it's not the Ritz, but I suppose it'll have to do. I don't know why I expected more from a secret government agency." She sighed again and shook her head in dissatisfaction, even as she laughed madly on the inside at the steadily growing anger on the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's face, "Now, where's the bridge?"

Keeping her face stoic even as her eyes shot fire, Agent Hill backed away from the doorway and gestured down the hall. Piper stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her without looking away from the dark-haired woman. The feral woman flashed her fangs at the other woman and laughed in her feline way when Agent Hill took a small step back, her hand once again resting on the butt of her gun.

Still snickering to herself, Piper swaggered down the hall with all the confidence of a predator that knew just who was at the top of the food chain, Agent Hill stalking after her. Humming a mindless tune to herself, Piper began dragging one hand along the metal wall of the hallway as they walked, her sharp claws making an obnoxious screeching sound and leaving quarter-inch deep gouges in the metal. The mutant woman knew the sound as well as her humming was getting to the dark-haired woman walking behind her from the steadily rising scent of irritation wafting from her, causing Piper to smile like the cat that just ate the canary and got away with it.

Other than the noises provided by Piper, the walk was silent and the gray-haired woman couldn't help but feel mildly disappointed when no other agents crossed their path. Of course, that disappointment disappeared and was replaced by unholy glee when she and Agent Hill finally arrived at the bridge after nearly ten minutes of walking through the labyrinthine halls of the carrier. Barely resisting the urge to clap and rub her hands together gleefully as she stared at all the people dressed in either the same tight, blue jumpsuit Agent Hill was wearing or a business variation of the uniform, that were working on or at the numerous high-tech computers or rushing around holding files and tables in their arms.

Suppressing the giddy, maniacal giggles that threatened to burst from her throat at all the tantalizing scents and the mouthwatering sound of multiple heartbeats pumping blood through soft, meaty bodies, she practically vibrated with giddiness. Piper nearly groaned, her own heartbeat skyrocketing as she focused intently on the oblivious humans going about their business like mice in a cage just waiting for the hungry cat to take its pick. An eager noise escaped her mouth and she rocked forward on the balls of her bare feet, aching to sink her teeth into warm, yielding flesh.

The sudden feeling of cold metal being pressed against her temple snapped Piper's attention away from the oblivious agents and towards one in particular. Red eyes glittering with bloodlust, observed the bloodless, terrified expression on Agent Hill's pale face dispassionately. The smell of her fear was cloying, but despite that and the terror in her dark eyes, her hands were steady as they held the nine-millimeter pistol to Piper's temple.

_'Prey...' _The dark voice hissed from deep inside the dark recesses of Piper's mind, a place that she had not visited in over a decade and it was beginning to be let out, _'Weak. Pathetic. Prey. Want...'_

Piper sucked in a harsh breath and closed her eyes, shoving the voice back into the dark place in her mind it had decided to crawl out of. Clenching her fists tight enough to cut her the fleshy part of her palms, the brief flare of pain helped to further pull Piper back from the edge of insanity she had been about to tumble off.

"You know, shooting me in the head won't do anything..." The feral woman said, her voice rough and gravelly with a threatening growl, "Except, like Nicky said, be a waste bullets and piss me off."

Agent Hill took a shuddering breath and slowly lowered her gun, watching the feral woman warily as her eyes dulled and faded back into their normal gunmetal gray.

"It might not kill you, but a bullet to the brain at this range would at least put you done long enough to contain you." The dark-haired woman retorted stiffly, only a slight tremble in her controlled voice.

Piper glanced at her from the corner of her eye, feeling mildly impressed at the woman's resilience before she nodded towards the hundred or so agents currently frozen in place and staring at them with wide eyes.

"Damage control, you might want to try it out over there."

Agent Hill's lips tightened into a thin line and she nodded at a table a few feet away at the very back of the room facing the wall of windows at the front before she walked stiffly towards two upright computers that overlooked the rest of the room, barking out orders to the other agents who hurried to do as she commanded.

Piper rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck before sauntering over to the table with her usual cocky swagger of her hips. Sitting down in the chair closest and at what would be approximately the 'head of the table', she propped her bare feet up on the glass top, smiling toothily when the female Agent cast a dirty look over her shoulder.

The pale-haired woman folded her clawed hands over her stomach and watched the other agents bustle around the room curiously, no longer overwhelmed by the scents and sounds of so many delectable humans in one room and she smiled predatorily whenever she caught the curious and sometimes terrified glances that some agents cast her way. Slumping further into the seat, Piper lolled her head back and closed her eyes, deciding to catch a little catnap.

Standing at the 'helm' part of the bridge, Agent Hill accepted the thick manila folder from one of the underlings and sent the agent back to work with a dismissive nod. Flipping through the folder quickly, she turned around and narrowed her eyes when she saw the feral woman lounging in her chair with her eyes closed, apparently _sleeping_. The dark-haired woman pursed her lips into a thin line as she glared at the gray-haired woman, unable to believe that not even half an hour ago she had been ready to rip into every agent on the bridge. Shaking those thoughts from her head, Agent Hill placed the manila folder on the table and slid it towards the mutant woman's feet. She watched narrowly as Piper woke as soon as the folder touched her bare foot, instantly alert and on the defensive. Agent Hill had a feeling that if the other woman was a cat, her hackles would have been raised and her fur standing on end.

"Here are the files on your teammates. Look them over."

Relaxing almost as quickly as she had awoken, Piper picked up the folder and looked at the female agent from under her lashes as she flicked through it, "Is that an order, Agent Hill?"

The deceptively mild tone set Agent Hill's nerves on end, her instincts screaming at her that she was danger and that she should retreat while she had the breath to do so, and she swallowed thickly as her mind flashed back to the almost inhuman expression that had appeared on the feral woman's face earlier.

"Of course not, Miss Lennart." Agent Hill replied coolly, suppressing the sigh of relief that wanted to escape her when her voice didn't even tremble, and she turned back to the helm.

Piper smiled coyly to herself and lifted the folder up to hid her face, reading the files inside it for real now.

_'Captain Steven 'Steve' Rogers aka Captain America, the first Avenger. Oh, he's adorable.' _She thought with a grin, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth before turning the page. Her brows rose and an enigmatic smile played at her mouth as she read the file one Doctor Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, _'Well, well, things just got far more interesting. I can't wait to meet you Dr. Banner, I think we'll have such a fun time together...'_

* * *

Piper was still lounging at the table on the bridge when Fury returned to the Helicarrier, as Piper learned it was called, several hours later, the darkened sky noticeable through the large wall of windows at the front of the bridge. The pale-haired woman's eyes were closed and her pose was so relax should looked almost asleep, the closed manila folder resting on the table in front of her feet.

Fury paused briefly when he saw the woman, knowing full well that she was not, in fact, asleep, but most likely listening to the multiple heartbeats in the room. He stared at her shrewdly for a moment before continuing towards where Agent Hill was standing at the helm, directing the other agents.

"Any trouble?" The director questioned lowly, glancing meaningfully at the gray-haired woman sitting behind them.

The female agent glanced at him, "Nothing I couldn't handle, sir. Is the Captain in?"

Fury stared at the woman contemplatively, his dark brown eye narrowed as he debated asking her what had happened, but he decided against it. The bridge appeared to be intact and Agent Hill would have informed him if the woman behind them had injured or killed anyone, so he answered her question instead of asking his own.

"He'll be arriving tomorrow."

"And Banner?"

Fury smirked slightly and clasped his hands behind his back as he surveyed the agents below him, "Romanoff is on her way there now."

Unbeknownst the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, a brief smile of insane glee flickered across her face before returning to its relaxed blankness.

_'I am positively aquiver with anticipation to meet you, Dr. Banner as well as your fascinating alter ego...'_

* * *

Several hundred thousand miles away, Bruce sighed quietly to himself after watching the little girl that had led him to a small shack on the outskirts of Calcutta disappear out of a back window.

"Should have gotten paid up front, Banner." He muttered to himself reproachful as he stared at the window in bemusement.

"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress you picked a hell of a place to settle."

Bruce tensed and turned his head slowly to look over his shoulder in the direction of the unfamiliar voice, his eyes landing on a redheaded woman standing beside one of the shack's support pillars.

"Avoiding stress isn't the problem." He replied carefully as he turned around to face the woman slowly, dropping his medical bag on the dirt ground carefully.

"Then what is it?" The woman asked in an almost playful tone, "Yoga?"

Bruce rubbed his hands together and smiled slightly as he glanced away from the woman and around the shack, "You brought me to the edge of the city. Smart." He started towards one of the small windows in the hut and glanced out, "I assume the whole place is surrounded."

The woman tossed the shawl she'd been wearing on the rickety table and took a few steps forward, answering the question even though is had been said as a statement.

"Just you and me."

The doctor moved away from the window and pointed towards the one in the back that the little girl had crawled out of with a mildly accusing and curious expression on his face, "And your actress buddy? Is she a spy too? They start that young?"

The woman shifted on her feet and lifted her chin almost defiantly, "I did."

"Who are you?"

"Natasha Romanoff." The woman, Natasha, replied as she shifted again.

Bruce looked down, his hands fidgeting in front of him then he looked back up at the woman, "Are you here to kill me, Ms. Romanoff? Because that's not going to work out for everyone."

"No, no, of course not." Natasha said quickly and she took a few steps closer to him, "I'm here on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"S.H.I.E.L.D." Bruce repeated, looking away again before looking back, "How'd they find me?"

"We never lost you, Doctor." Natasha replied calmly, her voice almost soothing, "We've kept our distance. Even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent."

"Why?" The doctor asked without looking at her, his hands finally still and clasped in front of him.

"Nick Fury seems to trust you." She said with a slight smile, "But now we need you to come in."

"What if I saw no?" Bruce asked as he raised his chin slightly and rubbed his hands together nervously.

"I'll persuade you."

He licked his bottom lip quickly and looked down at the ground, "And what if the Other Guy says no?"

"You've been more than a year without an incident." Natasha replied easily as she took as step back and weaved between the hut's support pillars, "I don't think you want to break that streak."

"Well, I don't every time get what I want." Bruce retorted wearily as he sent the wooden cradle that in the house rocking with a slight push before he rested his hand on top of it.

Natasha grabbed something and turned back towards the doctor, "Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe."

"Well," Bruce chuckled without any really humor, "Those I actively try to avoid."

"This," Natasha said as she showed him a photo of a glowing blue cube on the screen of a phone, which she then placed on the table and pushed towards him, "Is the Tesseract. It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."

Curious, Bruce stepped forward and took his glasses out of his pocket, putting them on the bridge of his nose and picking up the phone while Natasha took a seat at the table, her hands folded demurely in her lap.

"What does Fury want me to do?" Bruce asked wryly, his brow furrowing as he looked at the screen, "Swallow it?"

The woman leaned forward and rested her forearms on the table, "He wants you to find it. It's been taken. It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace." She leaned back in the chair and put her hands back in her lap as she continued, "There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be."

Bruce carefully put the device back on the table and took his glasses off, "So, Fury isn't after the monster."

"Not that he's told me."

"And he tells you everything?" He asked skeptically.

"Talk to Fury." Natasha replied with a shrug then she sat up straighter, "He needs you on this."

"He needs me in a cage?" The doctor asked as he looked away from the redhead woman and off to the side.

Natasha reached for the device on the table with one hand, "No one's going to put you in a-"

"_Stop lying to me!_" Bruce thundered furiously as he slammed his hands on the table, cutting the woman off midsentence.

Natasha jerked to her feet, a gun suddenly appearing in her hand which she was pointing at his face. Bruce straightened with a sheepish look on his face.

"I'm sorry. That was mean." He apologized sincerely with a small, abashed smile on his face as he softly clapped his hands together in front of his chest, "I just wanted to see what you'd do."

Natasha stared at him warily, as if he was a time bomb, with her gun still pointed at his face.

"Why don't we do this the easy way," Bruce said in placating manner as he held his hands up in a pacifying way, "Where you don't use that and the Other Guy doesn't make a mess. Okay?"

The redhead continued to keep the gun trained on him, the slight fear in her green eyes making Bruce feel guilty for frightening her.

"Natasha?"

Finally, she lowered the weapon and took a quick breath before pressing her fingers against her ear, "Stand down." She instructed without looking at Bruce, "We're good here."

Bruce gave her slightly amused look, "'Just you and me.'"

Natasha lowered her hand from her ear, her face carefully blank, but the small amount of fear was still visible in her eyes as she stared at the doctor.

* * *

**Author's Note: ...Okay holy crap, Piper is actually kinda insane, isn't sure? Seriously some of the crap she did in this chapter even surprised me a little. Honestly though, and I hope saying this doesn't jinx it or anything, but I am _seriously_ digging the new Piper. There's just something endearing about having my own little psycho-mass-murdering OC.**

**Now I mentioned in an edited version of the last chapter, that I changed the length of time Piper spent incarcerated from 13 years to 23 years since she is actually older than she looks, her exact age is going be revealed in a later chapter. Also I've thought really long and hard about Piper's backstory, where as in the original version I only had a rough draft, but now I'm really fleshing it out into something that might believably belong to a comic book character, at least I hope so. Some of the things may be a bit Mary Sue, but I won't be sure until I get the opinions of my lovely readers once those things are revealed to you. On another, Piper's extreme dislike of water will be explained as well, but I'll give you guys a little teaser since I adore you guys. One reason she dislikes water so much is because she cannot swim very well.**

**Haha, that one scene with Bruce and Natasha is still probably one of my favorites. It's just so funny when he scares the crap outta her. It probably makes me a terrible person, but I giggle every time I read/watch that scene. Anyhooties, I hope everyone liked this chapter because it was surprising long!**

**Oh-oh PS - I believe I mentioned in the first AN at the top of the last chapter that I would be taking some serious liberties with certain storylines, so I once again apologize to the purists! **

**Special THANKS to everyone that faved and/or alerted! You guys are seriously freaking awesome-sauce!**

**SPECIAL MENTIONS!**

**Cat of Flames: **Thanks, I'm glad you like the new Piper. Personally, I think she's so much more badass then the old one, plus she actually seems legitimately insane! Anyhooties, I hope you liked this chapter!

**Hiding in the Shadows: **Thank you, I'm glad you liked the last chapter! I honestly thought about giving up on her story, since I just could seem to make it work, but then I was suddenly hit with some inspiration after watching, and you won't believe this, but I was watching _Henry Hugglemonster_ with my brother. I was like 'Wouldn't it be kinda cool of I made my own psychopathic huggle monster?' Thus the new and improved Piper was born. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Geekchic8428:** Aw thanks! I really, really hope that I bring out Piper's full potential as an extremely diverse and multifaceted character in this version of her story. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Anon Guest: **Er...I'm not quiet sure why that would be. I feel like I'm missing some significance to the comment about wanting gravy and rice.

**Protagonist of Life: **Thanks, I'm glad you think the story is kick ass so far! I think this chapter is the most badass so far, but I'm hoping to outdo its badass-ness in the next chapter, lets hope I succeed. -crosses fingers-  
Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!


	3. Chapter 3: Tremble

Yawning widely, Piper rolled out of the surprisingly comfortable bed and to her feet. She stretched languidly, practically purring with pleasure as her joints and vertebrae cracked pleasantly. Feeling very much like a contented cat, Piper dug out change of clothes from her gunny sack and sauntered into the small, closet-sized bathroom attached to the room.

Once she finished with her shower, the feral woman sauntered her way towards the bridge, her bare feet silent and her toes lightly gripping the metal floor with each step. Humming softly to herself, Piper tapped her claws against her thighs as she moved over to the conference table at the back of the bridge, sitting in the same seat as yesterday. She propped her feet upon the table again and leaned back, folding her claw-tipped hands over her stomach and observing all the activity taking place in front of her through half-lidded eyes.

Fury glanced back at her from his position at the helm in front of the table and Piper smiled toothily, giving him a mocking two-fingered salute before wiggling her fingers at him. The S.H.I.E.L.D. director gave her a hard stare then turned back to watch his agents finish up preparations and perform their usual tasks.

Piper smirked and let her head loll to the side when she heard the soft pneumatic hiss of the sliding glass doors to the bridge opening. Half-closed gunmetal gray eyes watched as a balding man in a nice black suit walked in to the large room. The balding man glanced at her briefly with curious blue eyes before he walked passed her and down the ramp that led to the lower floor of the bridge where all the other agents were working.

* * *

Bruce fidgeted slightly as he looked around the aircraft carrier, his hands twitching in front of him with nervous energy. He wasn't quite sure where Agent Romanoff had gone, but he thought it best to just remain in one place to avoid causing any catastrophes.

"Dr. Banner."

Bruce turned towards the unfamiliar male voice, stepping back quickly to avoid running into the two heavily armed pilots that walked passed him that had been walking passed him. He cleared his throat quietly and walked over to the redheaded agent and the tall, muscular blonde man, who was none other than Steve Rodgers, standing beside her.

"Oh, yeah, hi." Bruce greeted the man, shaking his hand and giving him a quick once over, "They told me you would be coming."

Steve released the other man's hand, "Word is, you can find the Cube."

"Is, uh..." Bruce faltered and rubbed his hands together while avoiding direct eye contact with the super soldier, "Is that the only word on me?"

"Only word I care about."

Bruce nodded slowly, licking his lips quickly before gesturing at the activity taking place on the busy aircraft carrier, "It must be strange for you, all of this."

"Well," Steve replied with some amusement as he too looked around before the two began walking, "This is actually kinda familiar."

"Gentlemen," Natasha said, grabbing the attention of the two men as she came up behind them with a small smirk, "You might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little hard to breathe."

_"Flight crew, secure the deck."_

Mechanical noises filled the air and the aircraft carrier shuddered as the crew began rushing around to secure the planes.

Steve looked around in confusion, "Is this a submarine?"

"Really?" Bruce commented drily as he and the captain began walking towards the edge of the carrier, "They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?"

Natasha followed a few steps behind the two men, her hands clasped in front of her and a small, barely noticeable smirk on her pretty features. Steve and Bruce peered over the edge of carrier at the frothing ocean, watching in amazement as a massive plane turbine began to appear from under the water.

"Oh no," Bruce quipped with a bewildered smirk as he looked down at the turbine, "This is _much_ worse."

* * *

Piper tensed, her fingers curling against her stomach when the whole Helicarrier began to tremor slightly. She straightened from her slouch, letting her feet fall to the floor as she leaned forward to peer curiously at the wall of windows in front of her. The ocean began to churn violently outside the carrier, sending foamy spray onto the lower portion of the windows and Piper's upper lip trembled slightly with the beginnings of a snarl when it suddenly felt like her stomach was falling towards her feet.

In front of her, standing below the helm on a walkway between several computers, Agent Hill began barking out orders while Fury oversaw everything from behind his personal computers. Fury glanced over his shoulder at the feral woman, smirking faintly at the disgruntled expression on the pale-haired woman's face before he turned back to face the rest of the bridge. He got entirely too much satisfaction whenever he managed to push the woman, knowing that she couldn't really do anything without jeopardizing her freedom.

Piper's attention was pulled away from glowering thunderously at Fury's back when the glass doors slid open with another hiss, emitting three more people into the large room. Glancing at the new arrivals, a Cheshire cat smile flickered across her lips before she schooled her face into an innocent expression and she took a few minutes to observe the newcomers. The only woman in the group ignored Piper as she headed down another ramp and onto the walkway, crouching down beside another agent's work station. Losing interest in the redhead, the feral woman turned her attention to the muscular blonde-haired and blue-eyed man, who was too busy staring around the bridge in awe and bafflement to notice her intense scrutiny.

A muffled cough distracted her from her leering and she turned her head, cat-like gunmetal gray eyes clashing with wearily amused brown. Piper straightened and turned in her chair to face the second man fully, brazenly running her eyes up and down his body. He was neither as tall nor as muscular as the blonde man, but his shoulders were broad and there was a wiry strength to his build that was almost completely hidden by the too big clothes he was wearing. His skin was tanned from exposure to the sun, complimenting his dark brown hair which was salted through with gray while the five o'clock shadow dusting his cheeks and jaw gave him a rather raggedly handsome look. She found the purplish bruises under his eyes intriguing and she wondered if his alter ego was the reason he had trouble sleeping.

His brown eyes were tired, but curious as she met them head on with her own cat eyes and she smiled at him coyly, fangs gleaming faintly in the bridge's artificial lighting. His weary eyes widened and Piper gave him smug look, batting her eyelashes coquettishly at him. The man's face flushed and he gave her a strange look before looking away, causing the feral woman to chortle quietly to herself in amusement.

With a smile still playing on her lips, Piper shifted in her chair so she was facing the helm again then she folded her arms on the tabletop and slumped forward slightly just as Fury turned to face the two new arrivals.

"Gentlemen." The bald man greeted with a convincing amount of cordiality as he stepped away from the helm and made his way slowly towards the blonde man.

Piper's pale brows rose when the captain pulled out a ten dollar bill and held it up to Fury without looking away from the bustling agents on the bridge. The director smirked slightly as he took the bill and tucked it into the pocket of his trench coat before making his way towards the man standing to behind and to the side of Piper's seat.

"Doctor, thank you for coming." Fury stated as he held his hand out to the man.

Propping an elbow on the table, Piper turned her head and rested her cheek on her open palm to watch the two men with interest. The man, Dr. Bruce Banner, licked his lips and avoided direct eye contact with the S.H.I.E.L.D. directory as he shook his hand brusquely.

"Thanks for asking nicely." The doctor said wryly, "So, uh, how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Fury replied calmly, his gaze never wavering from the shorter man.

Dr. Banner nodded distractedly and turned away from Fury, walking towards one of the railings surrounding the little conference area behind the helm, "Where are you with that?"

Curiosity getting the better of her, Piper pushed her chair away from the table then jumped up onto it. She purposefully allowed the short claws on her toes to click against the tabletop as she sauntered closer to the helm. Fury observed her for a moment before gestured at the balding man that had come to the bridge earlier.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet." The man addressed Dr. Banner as he crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze briefly flickering away from the gamma radiation expert towards the gray-haired woman standing on the conference table before looking at the doctor again, "Cell phones, laptops, etcetera. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

"That's still not gonna find them in time."

Piper looked at the redhead woman that had spoke and tilted her head to the side in a distinctly feline-like gesture as she inspected the other woman. Dressed in a skintight red tank-top, jeans, and a leather jacket which did nothing to hide the woman's muscular and curvaceous build, it was obvious that the redhead was built for seduction. The woman glanced at her and Piper winked cheekily before looking at the balding man.

"You'll have to narrow down your field if you want to find Nicky's magic Rubik's cube." The gray-haired woman quipped, the muscles of her legs tensing beneath the loose cotton pants she wore just before she leapt from the table and landed on the railing a foot or so away from the doctor and practically right next to Fury, "I mean, c'mon, with the way you're going about this, your looking for the proverbial needle."

Fury frowned at her in annoyance and Piper smiled at him, cheekily blowing him a kiss.

Dr. Banner stared at the woman in surprise before looking over at the director, "That's a pretty accurate description, actually. How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

The S.H.I.E.L.D. director stopped death glaring at the feral woman to smirk smugly at the doctor, crossing his arms over his broad chest, "How many are there?"

"Call every lab you know." Dr. Banner instructed as he shrugged out of his oversized suit jacket, "Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places."

Fury watched the gamma radiation expert with a satisfied expression and nodded in assent, gesturing with his chin at an agent below to do as the good doctor instructed. Perched on the railing just behind him, Piper rolled her eyes at Fury and scrunched her nose slightly in sardonic bemusement at the director's expression, as if he had come up with the idea himself. The mutant woman then looked over at Dr. Banner, smiling in approval when she saw that she was right about the lean build hiding under that large jacket.

"Do you have somewhere for me to work?" Dr. Banner asked as he rolled up the sleeves of his purple button-down shirt.

"Agent Romanoff," Fury called out without looking away from the doctor as he uncrossed his arms, "Could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?"

The redhead woman nodded in assent and walked up the ramp, glancing at Piper briefly as she passed her before gesturing for the doctor to follow her.

"You're gonna love it, Doc." Agent Romanoff stated as she led the doctor away from the bridge, "We got all the toys."

Bruce hesitated a moment and glanced over his shoulder at the gray-haired woman, a flush heating up his face faintly when she wiggled her fingers at him and licked her lips. Clearing his throat quietly, Bruce hurried after the redheaded agent.

* * *

Piper yawned widely, her tongue curling slightly like a cat's, she uncurled from the tightly crouched position she had taken on the conference table shortly after Agent Romanoff and Dr. Banner had left the bridge. Standing to her full, rather average height, Piper rolled her shoulders and cracked her spine to remove the small kinks that had formed from remaining in the same position for so long.

Night had set a few hours ago and Piper was beginning to grow bored, something that could possible prove disastrous. She scratched her head, ruffling the shaggy, tangled mess that resembled a mane more than a normal head of hair and looked around, cat-eyes narrowing in on the Captain and Agent Coulson, the balding man from earlier standing on the walkway on the lower level.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble." Agent Coulson said to the blonde man and Piper's lips quirked in amusement at the hero-worship in his voice.

"No, no." Steve replied cordially as he watched the working agents bustling about around him, briefly catching sight of the smiling gray-haired woman from the corner of his eye, "It's fine."

"It's a vintage set." Coulson continued eagerly, "It took me a couple of years to collect them all."

Steve nodded distractedly, turning his head so he could get a better look at the woman who had remained so still and silent for the past several hours. He watched as her muscles coiled and tensed just before she leapt into the air, clearing the several feet between the table and the railing on the other side of Fury's personal computers. She landed in a crouch, one claw-tipped hand gripping the metal bar between her bare feet to keep her balance as her body rocked.

"Near mint." Coulson stated after a few moments of silence, apparently either not noticing or ignoring his hero's inattention, "Slight foxing around the edges, but-"

"We got a hit!" An agent called out suddenly, cutting the senior agent off as he turned away from his computer to look up at Coulson and Rodgers, "A sixty-seven percent match."

"Wait!" Another agent called out, "Cross match seventy-nine percent."

Coulson stepped away from Steve and hurried towards agent that had first spoken, "Location?"

The agent turned back to his computer and clicked a couple keys, "Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Königstrasse."

"He's not exactly hiding." Steve observed, briefly glancing to his left when the pale-haired woman appeared on the railing above him, head tilted the side with curiosity.

"Captain." Fury called out from where he was standing at the helm and the super soldier turned to look at him, "You're up."

The captain took a deep breath and nodded before heading out of the bridge to suit up. Piper watched him go then looked up at the S.H.I.E.L.D. director with an eager, hopeful expression. Fury glanced at the woman then turned back to observe the agents below.

"You're with him, Lennart."

"Yes!" Piper cheered and pumped her fist in the air with childish excitement then she leapt off the railing, racing from the control bridge and back to her quarters.

* * *

Practically skipping with eagerness, Piper darted into her room and dove under the bed for her gunny sack. Sliding out the other side with the gunny sack, the gray-haired woman leapt to feet and froze, her gaze fastened onto the dark material resting innocently in the middle of the bed. Piper dropped her gunny sack and grabbed the material, unfolding it with a snap of her wrist. A Cheshire Cat smile spread across her face as she looked at the present Fury had left her.

"Oh, Nicky, you really shouldn't have..." The feral woman cooed as she quickly shed her clothes and began suiting up after dumping the contents of her gunny sack on the bed.

* * *

Piper grinned predatorily when she saw the surprised look on the captain's face when she met him and Agent Romanoff at the Quinjet they would be taking to Loki's location. The dark leather bodysuit clung to her wiry frame like a second skin, leaving even less to the imagination than Agent Romanoff's.

"Like what you see, Captain?" The gray-haired woman drawled and she coyly patted her lashes at him, her fangs gleaming as she smiled, "Just so you know, I look even better naked."

Tossing her head back and laughing in her raspy, feline way at the furious blush and uncomfortable expression on the blonde man's face, she swaggered past him and into the Quinjet where Romanoff was waiting. Piper sat down on the bench on the left side of the Quinjet, watching in amusement as Steve shuffled awkwardly into the Quinjet and sat down across from her without meeting her eyes.

Chortling quietly, she pulled out a wicked looking blade from the leather sheath strapped to her calf and began cleaning under her claws. Since she seemed completely absorbed in her menial task, Steve took the time to examine the gray-haired woman more thoroughly than he had on the bridge. Her figure was wiry and whip-thin with hard muscles coiled tightly around her frame and the skin he could see was a pale, dusky tone with a very noticeable gray tint to it, as if tiny iron shavings had been embedded into the skin. Her dull, silvery-gray hair was a shaggy mess that resembled a mane and fell around her face all the way to her elbows. Wicked black claws tipped her fingers and toes, something Steve found slightly disconcerting, though he found her eyes to be far more alarming. A deep gunmetal gray with vertical slits for pupils, looking into the eyes was like looking into the eyes of starved wolf. For all her cheeky comments and coquettish behavior, Steve could tell this woman was a predator and that she was far more dangerous than she let on.

"_Tsk-tsk_, are you thinking about me naked, Captain?"

The super soldier flushed in embarrassment and looked anywhere but at the female mutant, whose expression had to be the most suggestive leer he'd ever seen on a woman's face.

"No, no, ma'am." He denied hurriedly, trying to force the blush away from his face with little success, "I-I apologize, ma'am, really, I didn't mean..." He trailed off and looked at the woman in concern when she began making strange coughing noises, "Ma'am? Are you alright?"

"Oh, Captain, you are just too precious." Piper cooed after her laughing fit had subsided, causing the muscular man to blush brightly again, "Such a gentleman, so kind and compassionate. So _sweet_."

Steve's mouth went dry when an almost inhuman look of hunger appeared in her eyes, which flashed red for the briefest moment, he almost believed he imagined it. He was saved from having to formulate a response when Agent Romanoff called back to them.

"Lennart, this is your stop. We're about a mile away from the target's location, Fury wanted you to scout the scene."

"Hmm, I bet he did." The gray-haired woman murmured as she stood and sauntered towards the lowering ramp, sending the flustered captain a wink over her shoulder, "Catch you later, Captain."

Steve watched dumbly as she launched herself from the Quinjet, silvery-gray hair whipping around her as she flew threw the air. She hit the roof of the building the Quinjet was hovering over and rolled into a crouch before she pivoted in the target's direction. The super soldier caught a brief glimpse of the feral woman racing across the rooftop on all fours before the ramp closed completely, cutting off his view.

"Who is she?" He rasped in disbelief, having never witnessed something quite like the pale-haired woman, "_What_ is she?"

"She's Piper Lennart, Captain, a mutant." Agent Romanoff replied flatly as she steered the Quinjet in the same direction Piper had gone in, "One that was scientifically enhanced against her will and still holds a grudge because of it."

* * *

Piper sneered and rolled her eyes in exasperation as she crouched on the roof of a building near the plaza the supposedly mythical Norse god, Loki, had rounded up the finely dressed men and women that had attended the event across the street.

_'I doubt they expected a psychotic man wearing gold horns on his head to crash their little elitist party.' _She mused sardonically as she scrapped her claws idly against the concrete of the small ledge she was perched on, _'What is with that thing on his head anyway?'_

She snorted and shook her head, returning her attention to the god as he carried on with his tyrannically speech on subjugation of humanity to the kneeling crowd of terrified people. She had already contacted Agent Romanoff via the communications' earpiece she'd been giving and giving her a brief, succinct report of what she had observed upon her arrival then she'd been promptly told to stand down and wait for the signal to attack, thoroughly pissing the female feral off. Upper lip quivering with the beginnings of a snarl, Piper dug her claws into the cement and the muscles of her upper back rippled as she rocked side-to-side agitatedly, wanting nothing more than to sink her claws into the Norse God's back and rip his spine out while he was still breathing.

More disturbing and bloody fantasies of what she wanted to do to the clearly deranged god began playing out in her mind as she waited impatiently for Agent Romanoff's signal, each fantasy getting her more worked up as the remnants of her humanity drifted farther and farther away.

"In the end you will always kneel..."

She was just about to ignore Romanoff's orders and charge down into the plaza when an elderly man stood up from the kneeling crowd, his head held high and his expression defiant and the god paused in his speech.

"Not to men like you." The old man said, his creaky voice strong and his German accent thick with contempt.

Loki lowered his scepter and looked at the elderly man in amusement, a patronizing smile on his gaunt face, "There are no men like me."

Piper rolled her eyes and growled low in her throat, _'There won't even be a _you_ when if you keep talking...'_

"There are always men like you." The old man rasped and Piper gave a low growl of agreement, before she silently climbed down the side of the building and crouched in the shadows, her body coiled tighter than a steel cable.

Flexing her fingers, Piper's black claws lengthened and curved like wicked little daggers and she crouched on all fours. She kneaded at the hard ground with her claws, shoulder blades sliding side-to-side beneath her skin as she focused on Loki with the single minded intensity of a hunting lioness and the god a gazelle.

Loki looked at the elderly man with that infuriatingly amused and superior expression as he raised his scepter and pointed the tip at the old man's chest, "Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example."

Terror filled the old man's face and he cringed back as a blast of blue energy shot from the tip straight at him. That was when Piper lunged. Claws sinking into the ground, she practically flew across the distance between her and the crowd of humans on all fours, powerful thigh muscles bunching then relaxing as she launched herself into the air and onto the back of a clone. She grasped the clone's head and twisted it completely around with a violent jerk. The clone disappeared from beneath her and she landed in a crouch, glittering red eyes focusing intently on Steve in his Captain America suit, after he'd dropped from the sky and landed in a crouch in front of the old man with his shield raised protectively in front of him just as the blast reached them. The blue energy ball bounced off the captain's shield and recoiled back towards Loki, hitting him in the chest and knocking him clean off his feet so he smacked face first into the hard ground.

The terrified crowd of people stared in petrified silence and Piper rolled her eyes in exasperation as she straightened.

"_**RUN YOU FOOLS!**_" The gray-haired woman roared at the top of her lungs, the sound thunderously booming from her body and she watched in satisfaction as the crowd screamed and scattered like so many terrified mice.

Steve glanced at her in brief surprise as he lowered his shield and stood, then he inclined his head in gratitude before turning to look at Loki, who had begun to struggle to his feet.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else," Steve drawled coolly as he stalked closer to the fallen god, "We ended up disagreeing."

"The soldier." Loki sneered disdainfully as he used his scepter to pull himself to his knees then he glanced over at Piper and narrowed his eyes in mild confusion and intense curiosity, "And who are you?"

Piper flashed him a cruel smile, her large fangs gleaming with saliva as she replied sardonically, "I am the Ghost and the Darkness. Tremble, little god."

Loki snarled and pointed his scepter at her, firing a blast of blue energy in her direction. Piper merely leapt over the blast and laughed obnoxiously in her feline way when her feet touched the ground then she darted away from the two men, content to let Steve handle the deranged god while she used his clones to practice the various ways she could kill him later.

Loki growled and glowered at the pale-haired woman's back before dismissing her and turning back to face the super soldier with a superior sneer, "The man out of time."

"You're the one who's out of time." Steve retorted sharply as Agent Romanoff steered the Quinjet forward, a large gun lowering from the bottom of the jet.

_"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."_ The redheaded agent ordered using the jet's PA system.

Piper snorted and rolled her eyes heavenward in exasperation as another clone dissolved around the hand she had thrust into its chest. They were dealing with a power-crazed god, did Agent Romanoff really expect him to just stand down? Piper snorted again when Loki fired an energy blast at the Quinjet, forcing the agent to swerve violently to the side to avoid getting hit, proving the feral woman right.

"Did you really expect him to give up like a little bitch, Agent Romanoff?!" Piper screamed at the top of her lungs in exasperation as she tore the head off another clone before unsheathing the dagger on her calf and chasing after another with a maniacal grin, "Honestly, today's youth has no common sense!"

The feral woman wasn't really sure if Agent Romanoff had even heard her comments, let alone reply to them, but Piper had a feeling that any reply she'd have received from the redhead would have been highly uncomplimentary. Dissolving another clone, Piper spun around and snarled when she saw Steve on his back with Loki standing over him. She was about to help the super soldier when a clone swung its staff at her, grabbing her attention as she brought her curved knife up to block the blow.

_Cause I shoot to thrill and I'm ready to kill  
I can't get enough and I can't get my fill  
Cause I shoot to thrill play to kill  
Play it agaaaaaain_

Piper froze and looked up at the familiar AC/DC song that suddenly began blasting from the Quinjet's PA system. Distractedly, she tore the clone's throat out with her claws and watched as gold blur shoot out from under the Quinjet, followed by a blast of fiery energy which hit Loki right in the chest and sent him flying several feet into a low set of stone steps.

Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit landed a few feet away from the downed down in a crouch, the ground cracking beneath him from the force before he straightened. Multiple clicks and whirls filled the air then the suit's entire arsenal was suddenly pointed at Loki. Sheathing her knife, Piper rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck after making sure all the clones were gone then began to languidly make her way towards the god as Tony threatened him.

"Make a move, Reindeer Games." Tony urged the god cockily as Steve rolled to his feet and walked up beside him, replacing his shield on his arm.

Loki glanced between the two men standing in front of him then over his shoulder as the feral woman stalked up behind him, his metal armor and helmet dissolving into golden particles a moment later, leaving him leather armor and he held his hands up submissively. Piper growled lowly and flexed her fingers in anticipation, hoping Loki would try something since she was feeling restless and had yet to act out any of her bloody fantasies.

"Good move." Tony quipped smugly as he straightened and his arsenal disappeared back into the suit.

"Mr. Stark." Steve greeted the other man stiffly without taking his eyes off the incapacitated god, even with Piper hovering behind him like a hungry shadow.

"Captain." Tony replied just as stiffly as Agent Romanoff landed the Quinjet behind them.

"Get up." Piper hissed caustically and she grabbed Loki by the arm, yanking him to his feet then shoving him towards Tony and Steve, "Move, fool."

Tony and Steve each grabbed one of Loki's arms and dragged him up the ramp and into the Quinjet, an agitated Piper prowling after them.

* * *

**EDITED 11/24/13: I decided to add the little scene with Bruce and Steve on the Helicarrier because it's too freaking funny.**

**Author's Note: Whee, fun chapter! Piper is a little more "Grrr, I'm gonna rip your heart out and eat your liver" in this chapter and we also get to see a more complete physical description of her from someone else's perspective. I actually really like this new Piper a lot, she so much more prone to making sarcastic, cheeky/flirty, or just plain sexual comments than the original version. Though I think her bitchy, malicious side is gonna be shining through a little more in the next chapter. Anyhooties, I hope y'all liked this chapter and that everyone was in character.**

**PS - If anyone of you have seen the Val Kilmer movie, _The Ghost and the Darkness_, you will totally understand Piper's comment. If you haven't seen the movie, then I'd suggest Google-ing it to understand. Personally, I think the reference was hilarious, but that's just me.**

**PSS - Also, I'm not trying to sound like a review whore or anything, but I'm kinda worried that the new version of Piper's story isn't as well liked as the old one and if I'm maybe doing something wrong. Does the new Piper seem Mary Sue-ish, should I make her more like her original self? I really, really don't want to seem like one of those authors who demands reviews, but I'm a little concerned. =/  
I am super, super duper grateful to everyone that has reviewed so far though, you're opinions mean the world to me!**

**Special THANKS to everyone that faved and/or alerted! You guys are freaking awesome-sauce!**

**SPECIAL MENTIONS!**

**Break This Spell666: **Awesome! I'm glad you like the new Piper, I think she's a more complete character than her original counterpart. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Protagonist of Life: **Yay, I'm so happy you think that! I just hope you think the same when her "inner beast", as I like to call it, finally comes out. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Pheonix dragon: **Er, thanks, I think. I'll try to update my other stories, though I'm not really sure which ones you're referring too...

**Teddy bear 007: **Thanks! I hope you dig this chapter too!

**Anon Guest: **Thanks, I'm glad you like the new Piper! I hope you like this chapter!


	4. Chapter 4: Thunder Says Hello

Piper flexed her fingers against her thighs, black claws kneading the leather material her legs were encased in, and she scrutinized Loki intently. The god sat across from her, the harness strapping him down even though he could probably break the harness easily enough. Steve and Tony were standing near the cockpit where Agent Romanoff was talking to Fury via the intercom.

_"He saying anything?" _The director demanded from the intercom.

"Not a word." Natasha replied flatly.

_"Just get him here. We're low on time." _Fury ordered impatiently, the intercom clicking off a moment later.

Piper tilted her head slightly in curiosity when a small smirk appeared on the god's face, "That was an impressive speech down there, you know." She commented with a convincing amount of sincerity, "Such a shame not even half of the people that heard it actually understood you. I hope you didn't it too much in front of a mirror."

Tony snorted quietly and glanced at the gray-haired woman, who was smiling sassily at the glowering god.

"I don't like it." Steve suddenly muttered in dissatisfaction, his lips pursed into a tight line.

"What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony asked sarcastically as he shifted slightly to face Piper and Loki.

"I don't remember it being that easy." Steve shot back in annoyance, turning his head to glare at the genius, "This guy packs a wallop."

Tony rolled his eyes slightly, "Still you're pretty spry for an older fellow. What's your thing, Pilates?"

Piper chortled quietly to herself, briefly taking her attention away from the god to glance at the two men in amused interest.

"What?" Steve demanded in an agitated and confused tone.

"It's like calisthenics." Tony explained impudently, "You might have missed a couple of things doing time as a Capiscle."

The super soldier gave the billionaire a dark look, "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in."

"There's lots of things Nicky doesn't tell you, Captain." Piper murmured, gunmetal gray cat-eyes once again focused intently on Loki.

Steve glanced at her, his blue eyes narrowed while Tony nodded in agreement. A flash of lightening lit up the ominously gray sky in front of the Quinjet, causing Natasha to frown.

"Where's this coming from?" The redheaded agent wondered aloud as she peered out the window of the Quinjet, full lips pulled down at the corners.

A booming crash of thunder rocked the jet slightly and Piper surged to her feet, muscled coiled tightly and her eyes wide with defensive aggression. A low growl steadily rumbled from her chest as she stared out at the storm clouds, her fingers curling and uncurling at her sides in agitation.

Steve turned to look at Loki, who bore a rather unnerved expression on his pale face, "What's the matter?" The super soldier asked sarcastically, "Are you scared of a little lightening?"

The God of Mischief flicked his eyes in the captain's direction then leaned forward and looked up at the ceiling of the Quinjet as he replied, "I'm not overly fond of what follows."

The Quinjet continued to shake slightly and Piper reached out, placing one hand against the wall and digging her claws into the metal slightly to steady herself just as another streak of lightning lit up the sky and was promptly followed by a crash of thunder. Abruptly, a loud thump came from the roof and the gray-haired woman jerked her head up to stare at the ceiling with narrowed eyes, her heartbeat and breathing increasing slightly in anticipation.

"Thunder comes after lightning." Piper breathed and she dug her claws further into the metal siding of the jet, "And I think he's coming to say hello."

Tony grabbed his faceplate and secured it to his helmet while the captain pulled his mask over his head. Piper removed her claws from the wall and leapt onto the bench, crouching in preparation with one hand resting between her bent knees and the other wrapping around the hilt of her knife.

Tony punched the button that lowered the Quinjet's ramp and stalked towards the back of the jet just as a burly, blonde man in silver arm and a red cape landed on the ramp. The billionaire powered up the blaster on his hand, but the large man slammed him in the chest with the head of the massive hammer he was wielding, sending Tony flying back towards the cockpit.

Piper lunged at the man, fingers curled and a snarl twisting her sharp features inhumanly. The man whirled and backhanded her across the face, sending her crashing into the bench she'd been crouched on. The previously sturdy seat buckled from the force of her landing and the woman yowled in rage as she rolled onto her hands and knees.

The blonde man turned back towards Loki and grabbed him by the throat, snapping the safety harness like paper as he ripped the dark-haired god from seat then he jumped out of the open back of the Quinjet, Loki in tow.

"And now there's that guy." Tony muttered as he got to his feet.

"Shit, I'm going to kill him." Piper groaned gutturally, the throbbing pain of her cracked pelvis reknitting itself making her hiss.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha called over her shoulder in shock.

"No, it's the Easter Bunny." Piper muttered caustically as she pushed herself to her feet,

"That guy's a friendly?" Steve demanded in disbelief, his breath coming in small pants.

"Doesn't matter." Tony stated flatly as he stomped towards the Quinjet's open hatch, "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Steve barked in outrage as he glowered at the suit's metal back.

Tony paused at the edge of the opening and glanced over his shoulder briefly, "I have a plan. Attack."

He launched himself from the Quinjet, the blasters on the suits hands and feet propelling him into the air and allowing him to fly through the storm. With her chest thrumming from the force of her growl, Piper rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck before stalking towards the ramp.

"Lennart!" Steve shouted when he saw the woman standing at the opening, "Are you crazy? You can't jump out of here without a parachute!"

"Watch me."

The super soldier watched in furious disbelief as the female dove from the ramp and into the dark clouds before he stormed towards the rack of parachutes near the cockpit.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap." Natasha directed at him over her shoulder as she pressed a sequence of buttons and flicked a switch.

"I don't see how I can." The captain responded drily as yanked the parachute over his shoulders.

"These guys come from legend." Natasha protested matter-of-factly, "They're basically gods."

Steve finished strapping the parachute on and looked at the redhead with a slight smile, "There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

He grabbed his shield and ran towards the opened hatch, diving off the ramp without batting an eyelash.

* * *

Piper narrowed her eyes against the harsh wind whipping at her face and body as she dove through the sky, gleaming red eyes zeroing in on where Loki seemed to be sitting calmly on an outcrop of rock. Her muscles rippled and coiled tightly as she flipped through the air and hit the side of the rocky outcropping, the claws on her hands and feet sinking into the stone as her body slid down a few feet with her momentum.

She curled her lip and her muscles tensed and relaxed when kicked off the side of the outcropping and lunged upward, her body up and over the surprised Loki. Piper twisted in midair and landed on all fours facing the God of Mischief.

Loki turned away from the amusing battle going on between his brother and the man of iron when the woman had leapt over him and he inhaled sharply when he shifted to face her. Deep red eyes glittered at him from an inhuman face, the features to sharp and pronounced to be described as unearthly. The woman straightened slowly from her crouch without taking her eyes from him and Loki had an absurd notion that the woman slowly stalking towards saw him as a mouse.

They locked eyes and stared at each other in a silent battle of wills when she reached him, malevolent red boring into electric blue. Loki gritted his teeth, refusing to be cowed by the woman in front of him while Piper tilted her head in a distinctly feline matter without breaking eye contact. Suddenly, her right hand lashed out and Loki's head jerked to the side, his cheek stinging from the blow.

Piper took a step back and lifted her right hand when he snarled at her, the blood sliding down her fingers from her claws glistening in the moonlight. Loki brought his hands to his face and clenched his jaw tightly at the sticky blood he felt there.

"A man once said to me, 'If it bleeds, then you can kill it.'" Piper growled lowly at him and she leaned forward threateningly, "Don't make me test that theory on you."

Locking his jaw and biting his tongue, Loki inclined his head in submission. Piper observed him narrowly for several moments then lifted her gaze towards the fight between Tony Stark and, who was no doubt Thor just as the other Asgardian used his hammer to call down lightning before directing it at the suited-up billionaire.

The Iron Man suit sparked several times before he lifted both his hands and shot a powerful blast of energy at the blonde man, sending him flying backwards into a couple of trees.

Piper heaved an exasperated sigh and crossed her arms over her chest as the two men continued to battle, "The fate of the world is in peril and their having a pissing contest. Men are completely useless..."

Loki glanced up at the woman's muttered comment before looking back at the fight, his lips quirking in amusement as his brother was thrown into several trees and rocks. Suddenly, the captain appeared on a uprooted tree and tossed his shield at the two men to get their attention.

"That's enough!" Steve's barked order reached Piper's keen ears and she rolled her eyes as he jumped down from the tree to face off with the other two, "Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here-"

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!" Thor cut the captain off sharply with a scowl.

"Then prove it." Steve demanded sternly, "Put that hammer down."

"Ah yeah, no, bad call." Tony quipped mockingly as he looked at the super soldier, "He loves his hammer-Ugh!"

Piper rubbed at the center of her forehead after watching Thor slam his hammer into Iron Man's chest, knocking him back several feet.

"You want me to put the hammer down?!" Thor roared furiously then he leapt towards Steve with his hammer raised high above his head.

Steve crouched and raised his shield just as Thor slammed his hammer down, hitting the middle of the shield with a loud, high-pitched ring that had Piper hissing in agony as her sensitive ears were assaulted by the noise. The impact of the hammer on the shield sent the three men flying back a few feet as well as decimated the remaining trees surrounding them.

"This is absolutely ridiculous." Piper growled under her breath after watching the spectacle without amusement and she grabbed Loki by the back of the neck, "Get up, idiot. _Tch_, I should have just remained in prison..."

Still muttering to herself, Piper seized the god's arm in a stranglehold and leapt of the rocky outcropping they were perched on without warning. She dropped Loki on his knees in the middle of the three men, landing in a crouch beside him as Tony, Steve, and Thor got to their feet.

"Are you morons done, or do I have to bash all your heads in?" The female woman demanded harshly, grabbing a fistful of Loki's hair and shaking his head slightly at the three men, "If you hadn't noticed we have shit to get done."

The men stared glanced at each other with unsure expressions then inclined their heads simultaneously at the irate woman. Piper continued to glower and bare her teeth at them in annoyance, her face twisted in an inhuman expression of contempt that was unmistakably feline.

* * *

Piper sat at the conference table on the bridge, lounging in the chair she had claimed when she first arrived on the Helicarrier. The relaxed pose she had taken up was deceptive in its sincerity since every muscle in her body was coiled tighter than a steel cable while her gunmetal gray cat-eyes were riveted to the little screen embedded in the table which was playing a live-feed of Loki's interrogation at the hands of Director Fury.

Sitting in the chair diagonally across from Piper, Agent Romanoff had her arms folded just under her own little screen which she was watching with an intensity that was almost uncharacteristic for the blank-faced agent. Steve sat to her right and one chair over while Bruce stood behind and to slightly to her left. Then there was Thor, sans most of his armor and his red cape, standing at the end of the arrow-shaped table with one arm crossed over his chest with the elbow of his other arm resting on it, his hand resting against his mouth as he listened to his brother and the S.H.I.E.L.D. director.

_"It's an impressive cage."_ Loki commented with a smirk after Fury had finished speaking and he held his arms out to gesture to the circular cell he was in, _"Not built, I think, for me."_

_"Built for something a lot stronger than you."_

Piper shifted and leaned forward to peer at the screen more closely, eyes narrowing to slits as she watched Loki look directly at the camera and smile.

_"Oh, I've heard."_ The God of Mischief drawled mockingly, _"A mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man."_

Piper saw Agent Romanoff lift her head and hesitantly look over at Dr. Banner. The feral woman glanced over her shoulder at the doctor, watching as he looked back at the red-haired agent with a humorless smile curling the edges of his mouth. Piper snorted and tossed her mane of silver-gray hair out of her face with a sneer.

"Clearly he's never encountered a _real_ mindless beast. Though I'd just _love_to introduce him to one." She smiled maliciously and placed her hands on either side of the little screen, black claws scoring the tabletop as she flexed her fingers.

Bruce glanced down at the woman beside him and smiled slightly to himself before looking back at the screen as the god continued to speak.

_"How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"_

_"How desperate am I?"_ Fury questioned in a deceptively calm voice as he walked closer to the cage, _"You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill 'cause it's fun."_ The director narrowed his eyes, speaking with more force as he continued, _"You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."_

_"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power."_ Loki cooed in a condescending and mocking voice and he looked at the camera again, _"And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share."_

Piper frowned and tilted her head to the side at the strange comment, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. She tapped her claws gently against the table and pursed her lips as her mind raced.

Loki looked away from the camera and back at Fury, his voice losing the mocking edge, _"And then to be reminded what real power is."_

_"Well,"_ Fury smirked slightly and called over his shoulder as he began walking away, _"Let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."_

The screen cut out and Piper leaned back in her chair, tilting her head back to stare thoughtfully at the ceiling.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Dr. Banner asked wryly as his hands fidgeted.

"Like mold." Piper quipped sardonically, glancing at the doctor with a small smirk, "Or maybe an STD..."

Bruce felt his lips twitch slightly and he inclined his head slightly in agreement. The gray-haired woman smiled a little bit and looked back at the ceiling, tapping her fingers against the table slowly.

"Loki's gonna drag this out." Steve stated abruptly after a moment of silence had passed and he looked over at Thor, "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army," The blonde Asgardian replied slowly, "Called the Chitauri." He turned to face them with a serious and troubled expression, "They are not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army from outer space." Steve said glancing between Natasha, Piper, and Bruce as if for confirmation before looking back at the God of Thunder.

Piper straightened and rubbed her hands together eagerly, a giddy smile spreading across her face, "How fun!"

"So, he's building another portal." Bruce stated, taking off his glasses and fiddling with them as he thought, "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?"

Bruce glanced over at Thor, "He's an astrophysicist."

"He is a friend." Thor responded in a surprisingly soft tone.

"Loki has him under some kind of mind control spell." Piper piped in then she jerked her chin towards Natasha, "Along with one of theirs."

The redhead nodded in affirmation when Thor looked at her inquisitively, her pretty face carefully blank.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him." Steve said suddenly, his expression determined, "He's not leading an army from here."

"Maybe he wanted to be captured." Piper replied idly as she began scratching a design into the tabletop with the tip of one claw, "If I had money, I'd bet that he's got something up his sleeve. An ace in the hole, a trump card that we don't know about, if you will."

"What makes you think that?" Steve asked interestedly, shifting in his seat to look at the woman contemplatively.

"Call it animal intuition." The female mutant murmured demurely, looking at the others from under her lashes, "It has an interesting habit of being right. Besides, I know a snake when I see one."

"I don't think we should be focusing Loki." Bruce commented matter-of-factly after chewing on that little tidbit of information the gray-haired woman provided for a moment, "That guy's brain is bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him."

Piper gave a gravelly laugh of genuine amusement, the irony of the doctor's comment positively tickling her. She shifted in her chair and shook a finger at him in an almost teasing manner.

"Now that, that was funny."

Bruce looked at her oddly, his lips turning up in a bemused smile as the woman continued to chortle to herself.

Thor scowled at the two and rumbled angrily, "Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha retorted matter-of-factly, giving the blonde god a dry look.

Piper paused in her laughter to look at Thor with a quirked brow, "If you want to believe some of the Norse legends, he's technically of Jötunheimr, the Frost Giants world. Isn't that right?"

Thor looked away from the two women uncomfortably, "He's adopted."

Natasha looked at the woman sitting across from her in mild surprise, "How did you know that?"

"I read. They did allow me that luxury while I was incarcerated." Piper replied drily then she smiled cheerfully, "At least when I decided to behave myself."

"Wait." Steve broke in, looking at the female mutant with accusing eyes, "You were in prison? Why?"

"I'm what you call a 'people-person.'" Piper replied airily as she met the super soldier's eyes head on, "In fact, I find people delicious."

She licked her lips for emphasis and Steve's jaw dropped before a furious expression appeared on his face. He opened his mouth, but Bruce cut him off abruptly as a thought was thrust to the forefront of him mind.

"Iridium...What do they need the iridium for?"

Piper tilted her head and shrugged her shoulders, just as in the dark as the other three. The answer came in the form of Tony Stark, sans Iron Man suit.

"It's a stabilizing agent." The billionaire commented offhandedly as he walked onto the bridge with Agent Coulson, who he started talking too, "I'm just saying, pick a weekend. I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive."

Coulson shook his head in amusement and walked away from the little conference area while Tony continued towards the group, his hands in his pockets.

"It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D. No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing," Tony continued as if he had never stopped, slapping Thor's bicep with the back of his hand as he walked passed the confused Asgardian towards the two computers at the helm, "Also it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants."

The billionaire looked at the agents on the level below and gestured at them with a hand, "Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." He suddenly threw his arm in a seemingly random direction and cried out, "That man is playing _Galaga_! He thought we wouldn't notice but we did."

Piper's lips twitched as she watched the man in amusement, chuckling quietly as he looked at the computer screens set up at an angle on either side of him with a perplexed expression.

Tony furrowed his brow and covered his left eye with a hand briefly, "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns..." Agent Hill replied drily as she stared at the genius billionaire with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Sounds exhausting." Tony muttered, messing with the right set of computers as he addressed the others sitting behind him, "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get ahold of pretty easily." He moved to computers on the left and began fiddling with them, "The only major component he'll need is power source with a high-energy density."

Piper's eyes narrowed and she tilted her head with a small smile of delight when she noticed him slip something onto the side of the computer he had been fiddling with before he turned to face them.

"Something to kick start the cube." Tony continued casually with a shrug, tucking his hands back into his pockets.

Piper leaned back in her chair, staring at the billionaire reflectively as she thought about what he'd just said. She hadn't been lying when she told Agent Romanoff that she'd been allowed to read while incarcerated and she'd read everything imaginable, retaining the information like a sponge retained water. Bruce began to pace behind her, his brow furrowed with his own thoughts.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked in an unamused manner.

"Last night." Tony replied flippantly as he turned to face the dark-haired woman, "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers." He listed off and began walking around the table, pulling his hands out of his pockets and holding his arms out with in apparent exasperation, "Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked impatiently, glowering slightly at the billionaire.

"Yes." Piper replied, her voice distant as she did the math in her head, while Bruce began to pace behind her., "He'd need to heat the Cube to one hundred twenty million Kelvin just to breath through the Coulomb barrier. Difficult."

Steve looked confused, but decided to remain silent for the time being.

"Yeah," Tony agreed as he started walking around the table again, "Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce commented, pausing in his pacing to look first at Piper then Tony, who was approaching him.

"Finally, people who speak English." Tony quipped happily, gesturing at the doctor then the gray-haired woman.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve muttered in confusion, shifting slightly in his chair to watch Tony and Bruce standing behind Piper's chair.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner." Tony greeted with a grin as he shook hands with Bruce, gaining Piper's attention, "You're work with antielectron collision is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster."

A choked laugh escaped Piper and she shook her head at the uncomfortable look on the doctor's face as he avoided looking the smirking Tony in the eye.

"Uh...thanks." Bruce muttered in discomfort that Tony seemed completely oblivious too.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube." Fury stated commandingly as he walked onto the bridge, giving Tony a stern look, "I was hoping you might join him."

"I'd start with that stick of his." Steve suggested, looking around at the others with raised brows, "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube." Fury replied with a mildness that had Piper narrowing her eyes on him, "And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor questioned in confusion and his brow furrowed, "I do not understand."

"I do!" The super soldier exclaimed excitedly then looked around bashfully when the others stared at him, "I understood that reference."

Tony rolled his eyes slightly and looked over at Bruce, "Shall we play, Doctor."

"This way, sir." Bruce said in reply as he gestured towards the door with his arm and the two began walking away.

"Wait!" Tony exclaimed, holding up a finger when Bruce gave him a confused look, then he sauntered back over to where Piper was sitting and grabbed her arm and gave it a tug, "Let's go, Meow Mix, you're coming with us."

"Call me that again, pretty boy," Piper said sweetly as she jerked her arm out of his grasp and stood with a dangerous smile, "And I'll rip your intestines out your mouth and strangle you with them."

"_Pfft_, yeah, whatever." Tony retorted dismissively with a wave of his hand as the two made their way back over to where Bruce was waiting in bemusement, "Now you can lead the way, Doctor."

Bruce smiled slightly when he caught Piper raising her hand threateningly above Tony's head from behind, her fingers curled like talons before she sighed silently and let her hand drop. She caught him look and rolled her eyes at the billionaire's back in a surprising show of good-natured humor, though the doctor didn't realize just how out of character the action was. Bruce smiled at her unsurely then looked forward again, missing the intrigued look that Tony was giving him and Piper after catching the whole scene from the corner of his eye.

* * *

Back on the bridge, Fury sighed infinitesimally after Tony, Piper, and Bruce had left. He was unsurprised at Stark's interest in the female mutant. Despite letting herself be ruled almost completely by her animal instincts, Piper's intelligence could easily be classified as genius-level. Trained to be a sociopathic killer from a young age and the number of atrocities committed against her, Fury could not blame the woman for her lack of empathy and complete disregard for human life. He did not and never would condone the actions she had committed when she freed herself from her tormentors though, but perhaps working with the good doctor and Stark would be good for her. Fury grimaced to himself; of it could end in completely disaster and he'd have not only one unstable individual to deal with, but two.

* * *

**Author's Note: Wow, Piper can be a kind of a scary bitch, huh? This chapter was actually quite a bit of fun to write, since Piper let herself off the chain just a little bit and we got to see a small glimpse of her inner monster. Anyhooties, I hope y'all liked this chapter and I hope no one was OOC. We will be learning a little more about Piper's backstory in the next chapter as well as her, not quite alter ego, but that's really the only good way to describe her more crazy, bloodthirsty, psychopathic/sociopathic killer self. **

**PS - Just wanted to thank everyone for putting up with my insecurities when it comes to this story. I know it can be a little silly, but you guys are champions for putting up with it. 3 **

**Special THANKS to everyone that faved and/or alerted! You guys are freaking awesome-sauce!**

**SPECIAL MENTIONS!**

**Anon Guest 1: **Thanks, I'm glad you like the new Piper! I hope you like this chapter too!

**Anon Guest 2: **De nada!

**Sarah Jackson - The Other: **Haha, will do! I hope you like this chapter!

**Person: **Aw thank you, I'm glad you like the new Piper. I'm so glad I've been able to clean up her concept and really do her justice as a character. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Teddy bear 007: **Yay! I hope you like this chapter too!

**Break This Spell 666:** Haha, alright I won't change her. I'm glad she doesn't seem very Mary-Sueish, I'm hoping to keep her as far away from that as possible, so I'll be trying to make a few more noticeable weaknesses, which for now will be more focused on the emotional/mental weaknesses while the physical ones will appear later. Hehe, yeah, one of the first things I changed about Piper's concept was her appearance, made it more human and less alien/monster-like, which I've reserved for her 'alter-ego', something I thought would be a good way for her and Bruce to relate. Also I'm glad you like her new attitude, it's less 'psychotic bitch with a complex' and more 'sassy badass with too much attitude'. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Kit-cat99: **Thanks, I'm glad you like the new Piper! She's definitely more violent then her original counterpart and she goes about it in such a cheeky, charming way. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Protagonist of Like: **Buahaha, that tremble part was pretty awesome, wasn't it. XD Anyhooties, I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you like this one too!

**Stinker126: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the original and the new version of Piper's story! I'm also glad you like the new flirty, sarcastically funny version of Piper's personality. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Molly Grace 16: **Thanks, I'm glad you like the new version of Piper and how she makes Bruce and Steve blush! It's also a relief to know that you think she isn't a Mary Sue, so thanks for that. Anyhooties, I will definitely give this story more time to get out there, but in the mean time I hope you like this chapter!

**Jordan Lynn 7: **Thank you, I'm glad you like the new version of Piper's story! I hope you like this chapter!

**The Warden: **Thanks, I'm glad you think the new Piper is more interesting than the original! I hope you like this chapter!

**Dhalmi93: **I'm glad you like the story so far, I will definitely keep writing it! Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Jillyjillyfairfax: **Thanks, I'm glad you like the last chapter! Haha, you're the first reviewer who mentioned the movie reference, I'm not sure how many actually got it. XD Anyhooties, I'm glad you think Piper is a badass and her more flirty-sassy personality makes her funnier. As for your question, her skin tone is pale for right now, but when she gets some more sun exposure, it'll be more of a dusky shade since I decided that she's of Slavic decent, but there is a noticeable light gray tint that'll get darker from sun exposure too, I hope that makes sense/helps. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!


	5. Chapter 5: Should Have Stayed in Prison

Crossing her legs, Piper perched on one of the tables in the laboratory on the Helicarrier and rested her elbow on her thigh. She rested her chin on the palm of her hand and tapped her claws softly against her cheek as she idly watched Bruce wave a scanner, that looked highly similar to a hand-held metal detector, over the glowing orb that was in Loki's scepter. The scanner was apparently calibrating the scepter's gamma signature into the computer that Bruce was studying intently as he worked.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract." The doctor commented interestedly without looking away from the graphs on the computer screen in front of him, "But it's going to take weeks to process."

"If we bypass their mainframe at a direct route to the Homer cluster, we can clock this at around six hundred teraflops." Tony stated as he began fiddling with a computer on another lab table, moving things around on the touchscreen.

Bruce chuckled wryly, "All I packed was toothbrush..."

Tony snickered before he smirked and walked over to where Bruce was working on the scepter, patting Piper's leg as he passed her.

"You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime." The genius billionaire suggested, dodging Piper's clawed foot when she kicked at him with a surprising amount of nimbleness before grabbing something off the table beside her, "Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it. It's Candy Land."

"Thanks," Bruce replied distractedly as he worked on the computer, watching Tony approach him from the corner of his eye, "But the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke... Harlem."

The gray-haired woman snorted quietly at the billionaire and slid off the table, quietly moving to stand behind the flat computer screen Bruce was working on while Tony walked around to his other side, still fiddling with the thing in his hand.

"Really?" She questioned in amusement, "That's actually quite impressive."

Bruce met her eyes briefly through the computer screen with a humorlessly smile before looking back at the graphs he was working on. Piper tilted her head slightly and moved to peer at the screen from the correct side with a curious expression, ignoring the way the doctor tensed slightly at her close proximity.

"Yeah, well, I promise a stress-free environment." Tony responded casually with a small, unseen smirk as he held up the small electrical device, "No tension, no surprises..."

"Ow!"

Bruce clutched his side where Tony had just shocked him and turned to stare in befuddlement at the billionaire, who looked at the other man closely.

"Nothing?" Tony questioned, his face morphing into an impressed and vaguely disappointed expression.

"Hey!"

"You've really got a lid on it, haven't you?" The billionaire asked, ignoring the super soldier's approach as he continued to scrutinize Bruce then he looked around in confusion, "Wait, where'd Meow Mix go?"

The female mutant suddenly dropped down from the ceiling and landed lightly on the table in front of the scepter, surprising the three men with her sudden appearance.

"I'm going to string you up by your esophagus, Stark!"

"Where you..." Tony smirked at the gray-haired woman and gestured towards the ceiling, "On the ceiling? Just now? I didn't know cats actually did that. I thought it only happened in cartoons."

Piper growled at him and pointed a clawed finger at his face, but before she could threaten him with bodily harm and a torturous death, Steve spoke up loudly with annoyance coloring his tone.

"Are you nuts, Stark?"

"Jury's out." Tony replied with a disinterestedly glance in the captain's direction before he looked back at Bruce speculatively, "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"A really good lay?" Piper supplied with a smirk, temporarily getting over her annoyance at the billionaire in favor of terrorizing the doctor and ignoring the super soldier fuming behind her.

Bruce flushed and shifted slightly in embarrassment, but he continued working on the computer without answering them. Piper chortled in a distinctly feline way as she gracefully sat down on the table, purposefully invading the doctor's space as she started kicking her feet in a child-like way. Tony suddenly smirked and took a step towards her, the electrical shock device in his hand extended towards her.

Piper didn't even bat an eyelash as she grabbed the billionaire's hand and wrenched the device from his grasp, crushing the thin metal rod easily in her fist before handing it back to him. She smiled smugly when Tony gave her a disbelieving look and stared down at the ruined device in his hand with a forlorn expression.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve demanded sharply from behind Piper, glaring darkly at the billionaire over her shoulder.

Tony turned to face the super soldier with a bored expression, gesturing slightly with the twisted mini-cattle prod as he spoke nonchalantly, "Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Steve snapped back then he looked at Bruce with a vaguely sheepish expression, "No offense, Doc."

"I thought if was funny. Startling, but funny." Piper quipped lightly, if for no other reason then to rile up the super soldier, and she reached out to touch the computer screen Bruce was working on, enlarging one of the graphs to get a better look at it.

"It's alright." Bruce muttered quietly as he avoided eye contact with them, focusing instead on the graph Piper had pulled up before pulling up another one to compare them as he continued, "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle, um, pointy things."

"You're tip-toeing, big man." Tony commented as he took a few steps back towards another table and pointed the broken shock device he'd been fiddling with at Bruce, "You need to strut. Like the Aristocat over there."

Piper flashed her teeth at the billionaire in a smile that was decidedly unfriendly before turning back to the computer screen she was now fiddling with alongside Bruce.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve retorted sharply as he watched the philanthropist with an angry expression.

"You think I'm not?" Tony demanded, grabbing a silver package from the table he'd walked over to before he moved back over to stand on Piper's other side, "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

Steve narrowed his eyes and stared at Tony skeptically as he opened the package in his hand, "You think Fury's hiding something."

"Of course he is." Piper snorted and gestured with one hand flippantly without looking at the captain, "He's a fucking spy, Cap. He's always hiding _something_."

"He _the_ spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony added, popping a couple blueberries into his mouth then gesturing at the quietly working Bruce, "It's bugging him too. Isn't it?"

"Uh," Bruce faltered as he glanced at the three briefly then away from them, waving his hands slightly in front of his chest defensively, "I just want to finish my work here, and-"

"Doctor?"

Bruce winced and sighed at the super soldier's imploring tone, taking off his glasses and fiddling with them as he glanced at the other three people in the lab, thinking about his words carefully.

"'A warm light for all mankind.' Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

Steve looked at the doctor in confusion, nodding his head slightly as he spoke, "I heard it."

"Well, I think that was meant for you." Bruce stated, gesturing towards Tony, who held out his package of blueberries towards him, and the doctor took a few as he continued to explain his theory, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly..." Steve started with a smirk that faltered when he saw the dry look Tony was giving him from across the table, "Building in New York?"

"It's powered by arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source." Bruce explained patiently as he fiddled with his glasses and glanced at Tony curiously, "That building will run itself for what, a year?"

"That's just the prototype." Tony smirked smugly with a nod then he sneered slightly at Steve, "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

"So why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project, if that's the case?" Piper commented idly, taking the blueberries Bruce offered her and popping them into her mouth, "What's a secret government agency that deals with 'special' types of people even _doing_ in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files." Tony stated nonchalantly as he walked around the table towards Steve, pulling his custom-made cellphone from his pocket and fiddling with it for a moment.

"I'm sorry, did you just say-"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge." Tony cut the captain off abruptly with a shrug, "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide." The billionaire smirked slightly and held out the bag of blueberries towards Steve, "Blueberry?"

Steve scowled at the genius billionaire, "Yet, you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

Piper hopped of the table and moved to stand beside Bruce, watching the two strong-willed men with eager interest, a Cheshire cat grin on her face. Bruce glanced at her in bemusement before returning his attention to the two other men, shifting in place uncomfortably.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Historically, not awesome."

Steve scowled and glanced away from the philanthropist briefly before looking back at him coolly, "I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed." Steve lifted his chin and his tone became commanding, "We have our orders. We should follow them."

"Following's not really my style." Tony quipped nonchalantly and popped a handful of blueberries into his mouth.

Piper snickered and flashed her teeth at Steve when he sent her a brief glare before turning to glower at the billionaire again.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve asked Tony rhetorically, looking down at the billionaire with a superior expression.

Tony scoffed and looked at the super soldier mockingly, "Of the people in this room, which one is A, wearing a spangly outfit and, B, not of use?"

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Bruce asked softly, looking at the captain imploringly from beside Piper on the other side of the table.

"Just find the Cube." Steve barked in reply, stalking out of the lab with an angry expression.

Piper peered out the large bay window that revealed the hallway of the carrier, watching in amusement as the super soldier paused before heading in the opposite direction of the bridge.

* * *

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony scoffed and shook his head in disbelief, "I'm wondering if they should have kept him on ice."

Piper snorted quietly and rolled her eyes at the billionaire, curiously following Bruce when he walked across the lab to another computer. Bruce, for his part, spared the female mutant an curious glance before pulling up several diagnostics on the computer.

"Huh." He muttered distractedly as he adjusted several things, "The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us."

Piper grabbed a tablet from the table beside Bruce's computer and leaned against the table, crossing her ankles, "That he does..."

"What he's got is an Acme dynamite kit." Tony retorted smugly from where he was working on the computer by the table that held the scepter then he wandered over to Bruce and Piper, ruffling the woman's hair as he passed her.

Without batting an eyelash, Piper reached behind her and grabbed a random object from the table, throwing it at Tony. She smiled smugly to herself when she heard Tony's quiet curse as the object hit him, her gunmetal gray cat eyes remaining locked on the tablet in her hand.

Tony scowled briefly at the gray-haired woman before moving to the computer on Bruce's left, "It's going to blow up in his face. And I'm going to be there when it does."

"Yeah." Bruce muttered, casting an amused look at the billionaire before looking back at his work, "I'll read all about it."

"Uh-huh." Tony replied nonchalantly with a glance in the doctor's direction, "Or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us."

"Ah," Bruce chuckled self-deprecatingly as he continued to adjust some things on the computer screen in front of him, "You see, I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed. Like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart." Tony commented matter-of-factly, gesturing towards the arc reactor in his chest as he sauntered towards Bruce, "This stops it. This little circle of light, it's part of me now, not just armor."

"Pippi over there, well, she's got enough issues to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool." The billionaire quipped with a shrug, ducking the tablet that had been aimed at his head and coming to a stop in front of Bruce with the computer screen between them, "Being a government experiment then imprisoned for the past two decades can do that to a woman, though." Tony paused and shrugged again, "It's a terrible privilege."

Bruce glanced between the two then looked back at his work, "But you can control it."

"Because I learned how." Tony replied simply then he nodded at Piper, "And you've seen her, she barely even bothers to control herself."

"It's different."

Tony snorted and reached under the screen, minimalizing everything Bruce was working on and forcing him to pay attention to him, "Hey, I read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

"So, you're saying that the Hulk-" Bruce faltered and cleared his throat awkwardly, "That the Other Guy, saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

Tony smirked and walked backwards to his computer, "I guess we'll find out."

"You may not enjoy that." Bruce replied flatly as he brought his graphs and charts back up to keep working.

"And you just might."

Piper rolled her eyes in mild exasperation and slipped passed Bruce, unintentionally brushing against his back as she sauntered towards the door. The doctor stiffened at the brief contact and warily glanced over at the female mutant as she swaggered out of the lab, hips swaying with each step. Swallowing thickly, Bruce quickly shook his head and returned to his work, forcing his mind to focus on the matter at hand and not the enigmatic Piper Lennart.

* * *

Piper paused outside the lab and looked both ways down the hall, pursing her lips slightly before inhaling deeply. A Cheshire cat smile spread slowly across her face and she pivoted on her heel, sashaying in the same direction that captain had gone in earlier. Her sly smile became malicious and her eyes flashed a dangerous red as she walked further into the depths of the Helicarrier, heading in the direction of a certain horned helmet wearing Frost Giant.

She had just reached the door that led to the heavy duty cage designed for the Hulk, but now housed Loki when the soft patter of footsteps reached her ears.

"Hey!"

The female mutant paused and glanced over her shoulder, watching the male agent hurrying towards her from under her lashes.

"This area is off-limits to non-S.H.I.E.L.D. agents." The man said once he reached her, "I'm going to have to ask you to return to the bridge, ma'am."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Piper apologized softly, as she turned to face the man, keeping her eyes downcast in an abashed expression, "I-I was trying to return to my room, but I got lost."

"That's alright, miss." The man replied with an easy-going smile then he turned slightly and gestured back down the hallway, "I'll escort you back to the civilian quarters, if you'd like."

"That won't be necessary, Agent. You see, Loki and I need to have a discussion."

"Wha-" The man frowned and went to turn back towards her, but Piper grabbed the back of his head and slammed it against the wall before he'd completed the turn.

She removed her hand from his head and watched in amusement as he slumped forward onto the metal floor, blood dripping down his forehead and down his slackened face.

"Idiot." Piper snickered, nudging his limp body with her foot before crouching down and removing his identification card.

She swiped the card and smiled brightly when the red light flashed green, the metal door sliding open with a soft, pneumatic hiss. Twirling the I.D. card between her fingers and humming a vaguely circus-like tune to herself, Piper sauntered into metal chamber.

"I certain didn't expect this."

"Now, why do I find that hard to belief?" Piper replied sardonically as she approached the control console in front of the cage, eyeing the buttons curiously.

Loki smiled at the woman in an almost affectionate fashion, "Now, why would I lie to my only ally on this ship?"

The female mutant shrugged one shoulder lazily before sauntering closer to the cell, her hands clasped behind her back, "What makes you think I'm your ally?"

* * *

"Sir? You might want to come look at this!" Agent Hill exclaimed, her blue eyes wide as she stared at the screen that played the feed from Loki's cell.

Fury's eye narrowed and he stalked over to the dark-haired agent, who stepped aside and gestured at the screen with a tight expression. The S.H.I.E.L.D. director sucked in a sharp breath when he saw Lennart standing in front of Loki's cell with her hands clasped behind her back and her head tilted in a curious manner.

_"Really Miss Lennart, why else would you be here, in this room with me, if you were not an ally?"_

Fury clenched his jaw and spoke through gritted teeth without removing his eyes from the camera feed, "Agent Hill, take a team down there and remove Miss Lennart from the cell."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

"Honestly, I can think of plenty of reasons." Piper commented and her lips pulled up into a predatory smile, "Most of which you won't enjoy hearing, I'm sure. I'm actually rather curious if a god tastes different from a mortal man."

"_Tsk-tsk_, Miss Lennart," Loki chided, giving her a scolding look of condescension, "What would Director Fury think if you destroyed his only lead to the Tesseract?"

The gray-haired woman snorted and shook her hair out of her face with a haughty toss of her head, "Really? That's it? Your threatening me with Nick Fury? Killing you would be a pleasure, the fact that it would stick in Nicky's craw is just a bonus."

A slow smile spread across Loki's gaunt face and the look he gave her was almost a leer, "Ah, but I know for a fact that cats can be such fickle creatures, so easily swayed if the offer is good enough."

"And what _is_ your offer?" Piper asked softly as she took a step closer to the cage and placed one hand on the thick glass, peering up at Loki from under lashes.

"I can give you everything you've ever wanted." The God of Mischief and Lies replied in an intimate whisper, placing his hand against the glass over Piper's, "At my side, you could have power, unlimited power and you could find those that wronged you all those years ago. I could make you a queen, Piper, never to be subjugated to another's whims."

"Except yours."

He gave her a seductive look, "I can assure you, m'lady, my whims you would enjoy."

Loki watched as the female mutant looked down, her features hidden from his view by a curtain of thick hair, and he smiled cruelly to himself. After several lifetimes of watching the body language of others, the god could tell that the woman was considering his offer by the way she stood.

His brow furrowed in confusion when her shoulders began to shake and a raspy, coughing noise escaped her. Indignation filled him when he realized she was laughing and he was about to snarl at her when she abruptly stopped and jerked her head up, demonic red eyes locking onto his. His heart briefly stuttered in irrational fear at the raw, primal bloodlust and hate reflected in the scarlet gaze.

"Enjoy each breath of life you take, little god." Piper growled huskily, her lips curling into a feral snarl, "Because if I get my hands on you, you'll be taking your last." She straightened and smiled charmingly at the god, her eyes still glowing red even as she spoke in a voice sweeter than honey, "Now, if you'll excuse me, good sir."

Loki watched in stunned silence as she sauntered out of the chamber, her head held high and her hips swaying with each confident step she took. Mere minutes after the door slid shut behind her, it reopened and several armed agents marched into the room with their weapons held at the ready with Agent Hill at the head. The god watched in amusement as the dark-haired female agent swore quietly and lowered her gun.

"Ah, Agent Hill, I'm afraid you just missed her."

* * *

Digging her claws into the metal ceiling, Piper tilted her head back and watched in amusement as Agent Hill and the small squad of her fellow agents stormed out of Loki's prison cell and disappeared down the hall. The female feral snickered and dropped down from the ceiling as soon as the armed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were out of sight, humming mindlessly as she sauntered back to the lab where Bruce and Tony were no doubt still working and bonding over their shared genius-level intellects.

* * *

"Where'd you run off too, Pippi?" Tony asked with offhanded curiosity as the gray-haired woman sashayed her way back into lab, a wide Cheshire cat smile on her face.

"Here and there." Piper replied flippantly, hopping up onto the table Bruce was working at, "You know, terrorizing agents, pissing off Fury, and threatening Norse gods with inferiority complexes. There's just so much fun to be had on Nicky's love nest."

"Oh, that's nice." Tony muttered with a snicker.

Bruce furrowed his brow and looked at the woman warily, "Wait, did you just-"

"What's that?" The female mutant cut him off with a sly smile as she pointed at a random calculation that was on the computer.

"You're not going to answer are you?" The doctor questioned in bemusement, a small wry smile twitching at the corner of his lips when the woman shook her head, "Okay then, um...It's the tracking algorithm, I'm, uh, refining it."

"Ah," Piper murmured noncommittally, too busy observing the man to really pay attention to what he was saying.

Bruce glanced at her and his breath caught his in his throat when he caught her eye, a flush working its way up his throat to his face at her intense scrutiny. He shifted uncomfortably and awkwardly cleared his throat, tearing his eyes away from hers to look back at his computer screen.

A small, enigmatic smile tugged at her lips and Piper leaned away from the tense doctor, her gunmetal gray eyes catching Tony's amused brown ones from across the room. The billionaire winked at her and wiggled his brows suggestively, chortling to himself when the female mutant rolled her eyes contemptuously at him.

The two geniuses worked in silence for the next hour or so while Piper amused herself with a game of solitaire on the spare cell Tony had handed her to play with. But every once in a while, Piper would catch Bruce glancing at her with a curious expression. Finally, after what had to be the twentieth glance, the female mutant put the phone down and stared at the doctor with her hands folded on her lap.

"We really need to work on your subtly, Doc." She quipped, cocking her head to the side in a distinctly feline way.

"Um..." Bruce fidgeted slightly with the controls on the screen then glanced at her, "What exactly, uh...are you? I mean are you, um...human?"

"Well, that last one is up for debate." Piper replied in amusement, "But to answer the initial question, I'm a mutant of the feral variety." She chuckled at his blank look and explained more thoroughly, "You see, there are certain people, like myself, that are born with an enhanced genome that gives us superpowers. Depending on the abilities, a mutant is categorized as either Psionic, Elemental, Molecular, or Feral. Of course, there are also hundreds of subclasses, but that's besides the point."

"Now, since it's _me_ we're discussing, we can ignore those first three classes and focus on the last one, the Feral class." Piper continued, tapping the claw of her index finger against her bottom lip thoughtfully, "Now, ferals are mutants with physical and mental characteristics of an animal, though how strong those characteristics are varies from mutant to mutant. In most cases, a feral will usually show signs of the animal they're DNA is mixed with from the moment of birth, while other aspects of their mutation, if they have any, will develop when puberty is reached or when the body is stressed to a certain point that triggers the dormant mutated genes."

Bruce paused in his work and turned to face the woman fully, folding his arms across his chest as he listened to her intently. Tony, his attention having been attracted by Bruce's initial question, wandered over to stand beside the doctor, his expression just as curious.

"How is that possible exactly?" Bruce asked with a small frown, tapping his glasses against his thigh as he thought.

Piper shrugged one shoulder, "Don't know, there are a lot of theories, but nothing really concrete. Some say evolution, others say it's God's will, like I said, there are a bunch of theories." She clapped her hand sand smiled brightly at the two men, "Now, back to Mutants 101. The mutation _all_ mutants have is regeneration, since our bodies are put through a tremendous amount of stress because of the powers. The only difference between every mutant, is how strong the re-gen gene is. Most only have a weak re-gen gene, enough to keep them alive and healthy, while a few, like myself, have the ability to withstand almost anything."

"Now, I say 'almost anything' because only a very, very select few actually have the ability to regrow limbs. And yes, I did just say regrow limbs, I've seen a mutant who could regrow his arms and legs." Piper said, cutting off the question Tony was about to ask before he could even speak, "Of course, he couldn't regrow his head after I ripped it off, so that might have just been fluke or a part of his mutation. Whatever, anyway, as I was saying, the re-gen gene also slows down aging and the more powerful the gene, the long the mutant can live. How old do I look?"

"Twenty-one." Tony replied instantly then looked her over critically, "Wait, no, make that twenty-four."

Piper smirked and jumped off the table, digging onto the pocket of her loose pants and removing a worn velvet bag. She held the small bag out to Bruce, gesturing for him to take it with a small shake of the bag. Hesitantly, the doctor took the velvet bag and, glancing at Piper unsurely, he upended the contents of the bag into his palm.

"Are those...Is that a dog tag?" Tony asked curiously, peering over Bruce's shoulder, "And a wedding ring?"

Bruce stared at the silver chain with a single dog tag and simple engagement ring on it. Slender fingers tipped with wickedly sharp black claws appeared in his line of sight and gently turned the dog tag over, revealing embossed identification.

"My father was deployed shortly before Kennedy was assassinated." She stated, tapping the dog tag with a claw.

"That was during the conflict with Vietnam, which was in... " Tony trailed off and blinked in surprise.

"Nineteen sixty-three." Bruce finished, gently tucking the battered silver chain back into the worn velvet bag before handing it back to Piper, "You're forty-nine."

"Technically, I'm forty-eight." Piper replied as she put the bag back into her pocket, "I was born around the middle of nineteen sixty-four, though I can't remember exactly when. Don't really remember much at all from back then, I was young when they took me."

"They?"

The female mutant shrugged in reply to Tony's question and picked up the Stark cellphone, bringing up her solitaire game to continue playing. Clearly seeing the lack of response for the dismissal it was, Bruce cleared his throat and turned back to his computer screen. He worked on autopilot, his mind whirling at the all the information he'd received. Tony gaped at the two of them before he huffed and threw his hands up in exasperation, pulling his cell out of his pocket to check on the progress of his decryption program as he walked away from Piper and Bruce.

* * *

Piper kicked her feet back and forth as she sat on table with Loki's scepter on it, her back to the god's pointy staff and a package of blueberries in hand, while Bruce leaned against the thick glass window that overlooked one of the aircraft holders in the carrier with his arms crossed over his chest and his glasses dangling from one hand. Piper stretched her arm out towards Tony, who was sitting on the edge of the table on the opposite side with the computer screen hanging from the ceiling in front of him and his handheld in one hand. The billionaire took a couple blueberries from the proffered bag and popped them into his mouth just as Fury stalked into the lab with an annoyed expression on his face, his trench cloak ominously billowing out behind him.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"

"Uh, kinda been wondering the same thing about you." Tony replied without looking away from the high-tech phone in his hand.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury barked at the billionaire as he came to stand a few feet in front of the table Piper, Bruce, and Tony were either sitting on or standing by.

"We are." Piper commented mildly and popped the last couple of blueberries into her mouth before beginning to clean out the underside of her claws with a screwdriver she'd found in the lab.

"The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now." Bruce stated from his spot leaning against the window and he rubbed at his knuckles with his empty hand then he gestured towards one of the computers behind the director, "When we get a hit, we'll have a location within half a mile."

"Yeah, then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss." Tony quipped, his brow furrowing then smoothing out in curiosity as he looked at the computer screen in front of him, "What is 'Phase 2'?"

Steve came in suddenly and dropped a massive looking gun-like weapon on the table across from them with a thud.

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons." The super soldier stated stiffly then he looked at Tony with a vaguely patronizing expression, "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

Piper stared at lethal looking weapon before slowly dragging her gaze towards Fury with narrowed eyes, a growl bubbling up in her throat.

"Rodgers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract." Fury explained in a placating tone as he walked over to the captain, "This does not mean that we're making-"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony interrupted the director as he hopped off the table and turned the table the computer screen to face Fury and Steve, showing a blueprint for nuclear missile on the screen, "What were you lying?"

Piper clicked her tongue and looked at the director, her eyes glittering with derision, "Someone's just been caught doing something naughty. _Tsk-tsk_, Nicky, for shame."

"I was wrong, Director." Steve said coldly as he looked at Fury, "The world hasn't changed a bit."

Pulling her feet up onto the table, Piper shifted into a crouch behind the scepter with one hand resting between her bent knees for balance. She briefly took her gaze away from Director Fury and Steve to glance at Agent Romanoff and Thor as they came into the lab before looking back at the S.H.I.E.L.D. director.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce addressed Natasha, moving around to table towards the computer screen and gesturing at the blueprint with a hand.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" The redheaded agent asked in a calm, but terse tone.

"Ha," Bruce chuckled and smiled at the woman without humor, "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you." Natasha stated gently and she took a step forward, only to stop in her tracks when Piper snarled at her aggressively, fangs bared in warning.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Bruce questioned sarcastically as he stepped closer to the computer screen.

Natasha glanced away from Piper to scowl at the doctor, "You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce retorted defiantly as he grabbed the screen and moved completely around the table so it was facing the redhead and Thor, "I want to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Fury stared at the doctor silently for several moments then, without looking away, pointed a finger at Thor, "Because of him."

Piper sat back on heels in surprise and rested her forearms on her thighs with her hands dangling between her knees, giving Fury a dumbfounded look, "You're kidding right?"

Thor apparently was wondering the same thing because he looked perplexedly at the director and pointed at himself, "Me?"

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town." Fury stated flatly, ignoring the disbelieving look Tony was giving him as he took a few steps forward until he was standing in the middle of the loose circle the other five had formed, "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"Nope." Piper sighed and scratched at her forehead in vexation, "He's not kidding. Goddammit."

Slipping into a cross-legged seating position on the table, the female mutant rested her elbow on her thigh and cupped her chin as she watched the spectacle with a droll expression. She glanced at Bruce, who seemed to becoming increasingly more agitated as the tension in the air grew. Natasha, also watched the good doctor warily, her hand itching to grab her gun.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor objected to Fury's statement hotly.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury shot back as he turned to face the god with a scowl, "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched." The director turned to face the others again, his one eye briefly lingering on Bruce and Piper before he continued, "That can't be controlled."

"Like you control the Cube?" Steve retorted sharply, crossing his muscular arms over his chest.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies!" Thor boomed and took a few threatening steps towards Fury, "It is a signal to all realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war!"

Steve looked at the God of Thunder in disbelief, "A higher form?"

"You forced our hand." Fury replied obstinately then he gestured towards the weapon on the table, "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent." Tony quipped nonchalantly from behind Fury, "Because that always calms everything right down."

"Like poking a hibernating grizzly bear." Piper murmured with an eye roll, "Real intelligent there, Nicky. I am simple astounding at your brilliance."

"You, Lennart, are still under supervision. I took you out of that prison, I can throw your ass back in." Fury retaliated sharply and glowering at the female mutant for a moment before he turned to glare at Tony, "And remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark."

"If this is an example of the government's combined intelligence, I think I'd rather go back. I'd just break out eventually." Piper muttered drily.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-"

"Wait, wait. Hold on." Tony cut Steve off with a raised hand as he turned to glare at the super soldier, "How is this now about me?"

Steve rolled his eyes sarcastically, "I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this!" Thor growled thunderously, shifting on his feet in agitation.

"Excuse me," Fury barked, pivoting on his heel to snarl at the god, "Did we come to your planet and blow shit up?"

Thor scoffed at the director, "You treat your champions with such mistrust."

"You are _not_ my champions!"

"Are you all really that naïve?" Natasha demanded sharply, looking around at the men and Piper contemptuously, "S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats."

"Captain America's on the threat watch?" Bruce asked in disbelief and he crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head slightly.

"Is that above or below angry bees?" Tony questioned sarcastically, but was mostly ignored by the others, except for Steve, who glared at him in outrage.

Natasha gave Bruce a look of derision, "We all are."

Piper sighed amidst the chaos and pinched the bridge of her nose carefully as the six continued to argue like children, their voices blending and rising together as their anger increased. The headache she could feel pounding at her temples and behind her eyes only increased as a strange high-pitched hum started up, causing her ears to ring and set her teeth on edge.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor thundered obnoxiously.

"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce questioned and the others looked at him in confusion, "Hmm? I mean, what are we a team?" He shook his head and chuckled humorlessly, "No, no, no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

Fury stretched out his hand and took a step towards Bruce, "You need to step away."

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony demanded in exasperation and he rested his hand companionably on Steve's shoulder.

Steve knocked Tony's hand away and glared at him, "You know damn well why. Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor." The super soldier sneered as he walked a full circle around Tony, "Take that off, what are?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony retorted mockingly, smirking at the captain condescendingly.

Piper snorted and Natasha made a face that clearly said, that while she didn't like it, she did agree with Tony assessment of himself.

"I know guys with none of that that are worth ten of you." Steve stated, lifting his chin and staring down at the billionaire with disdain.

"Most of the people you know are dead, Cap." Piper quipped flatly, her lips pulling down at the corners as she rubbed the center of her forehead, "Doesn't really count."

"I've seen the footage." Steve continued, ignoring the woman's barb as he sneered at Tony, "The only thing you really fight for, is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

Tony gave him an unimpressed look, "I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out." Steve drawled with a smirk as he glanced at the others then back at Tony with a raised brow, "You know you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero? Like you?" Tony challenged as he got right in Steve's face, "You're a laboratory experiment, Rodgers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Put on the suit." Steve replied with smug condescension, "Let's go a few rounds."

"You people are so petty." Thor laughed mockingly then looked down at the others spitefully, "And tiny."

Piper made an agonized noise low in her throat and closed her eyes tightly, clutching at her head and digging her claws into her scalp until blood welled up. The multiple voices and the incessant humming strained at her already frayed nervous, causing her muscles to tighten and clench painfully with stress.

"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce muttered to himself and crossed his arms, his attention briefly being taken away when Piper's soft whine of pain reached his ears and he turned towards her with a concerned expression.

"Agent Romanoff could you escort Dr. Banner back to his-"

"Where?" Bruce asked sharply, turning away from the gray-haired woman to glare at the director in disbelief and gesture in the vague direction of the cell Loki was currently occupying, "You rented my room."

Fury looked at him with exasperation, "The cell was just in case-"

"In case you need to kill me, but you can't. I _tried_." Bruce finished with a knowing expression that quickly changed to nervous agitation as he crossed his arms and avoid making eye contact, "I got low, I didn't see an end. So I put a bullet in my mouth and the Other Guy spit it _out_. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk." He looked up suddenly and glared at Natasha, "You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"

"Dr. Banner." Fury stated in a calm, even tone as he unlatched his gun holster.

"Put down the scepter." Steve ordered quietly, watching the doctor warily.

A confused look appeared on Bruce's face and he looked down, staring in shock at the glowing scepter clutched tightly in his hand.

"Bruce..." Piper murmured softly and she hesitantly reached out to him, her clawed hand hovering above his shoulder and dangerously close to his throat, "Put it down, please."

Bruce looked over his shoulder at her, his expression a meld of confusion and helplessness, but the female mutant was saved having to do anything drastic when the computer tracking the Tesseract began beeping wildly from across the room.

"Got it." Bruce muttered and he placed the scepter back on its stand in front of Piper, "Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all."

Piper leapt over the scepter and landed on the ground, trailing after Bruce like a pale-haired shadow when he walked over to the beeping computer at the other end of the lab. She casted a wary glance over her shoulder at the scepter, wondering if it had been producing the humming noise that had vanished as soon as Bruce touched it. Shrugging off the uneasy she felt, Piper hovered on Bruce's left side and tried to discern where the strange beeping noise she could suddenly hear was coming from.

"You've located the Tesseract?" Thor questioned as he looked over at the doctor inquiringly while Natasha moved passed him to stand on Bruce's other side and peer at the screen intently.

"I can get it faster." Tony said eagerly, moving to leave the lab.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard." Thor snapped, stopping Tony in his tracks, "No human is a match for it."

Tony moved to continue out of the lab anyway, but Steve grabbed his arm and yanked him back.

"You're not going alone."

"You're gonna stop me?" The billionaire demanded mockingly and he slapped Steve's hand off his arm.

"Put on the suit, let's find out." Steve shot back challengingly.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

Piper was just about to tell both men to shut up before she ripped their tongues out of their mouths when Bruce suddenly faltered and sucked in a sharp breath of surprise.

"Oh my God." He muttered and he looked up from the computer, his wide brown eyes meeting her agitated gray ones just before the lab suddenly exploded.

* * *

**Author's Note: Holy hell, long chapter is long and now my fingers are cramped as all hell. Seriously without this author's note the chapter is over 7,600 words. On a completely different note, we have some of Piper's backstory, yay! I hope what I had written out isn't _too _Mary Sue-ish, and if it seems that way I can always go back and revise it some. Anyway, same deal as in the original story where I'm pretty much using the agency Colonel William Stryker was part of as the one that kidnapped and experimented Piper. Which, along with the part about her father being a soldier during Vietnam, I will use as a doorway to introduce Wolverine and Sabertooth in later chapters. Anyhooties, I hope y'all enjoyed this extra long chapter because it was very fun writing it.**

**Also very SPECIAL THANKS to Kit-cat99 for giving me the idea to have Piper have a secret chat with Loki, I hope you enjoyed the way I ran with the idea!**

**Special THANKS to everyone that faved and/or alerted! You guys are freaking awesome-sauce!**

**SPECIAL MENTIONS!**

**Jesskalynn4: **Thanks, I hope you like this chapter!

**InTheWrongEra: **Haha, I'm glad you liked the last chapter and that Piper was able to make you laugh! I hope you like this chapter too!

**Dhalmia93: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the new version of the last chapter and that you think the new Piper is awesome! I hope you like this version of chapter five too!

**Molly Grace 16: **Ah, I actually wince a little whenever I go back and reread the original for some help. I'm not very find of overly angsty characters either and that my first attempt at Piper's character turned out that way makes me cringe a bit. I original wanted Piper to have more of a Joker/Harley Quinn meets Victor Creed/Logan (in Wolverine: Origins) type of personality, but it didn't turn out quite that way the first time around. I think I did a much better job with this Piper though. Anyhooties, I hope you liked this chapter!

**Kit-cat99: **Haha, maybe sometimes, but I think he might stick with 'Pippi' in the long run. It's less likely to get him chewed on. Also, thanks a super-duper bunch for the wonderful suggestion, as soon as I read your review, I was literally bombarded with little ideas. I just hope you like the scene I finally settled on!

**Protagonist Of Life: **Haha, I hope you like this chapter!

**Laveycee: **Aw thanks, I'm glad you like the rewrite! You really think New Piper is awesomer than Prussia? I'm so flattered! Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Jillyjillyfairfax: **Haha, glad you liked that little joke! Omigawd, I didn't even think of Whiskers, that's a good one, so you win those five virtual cookies! Oh don't worry, she'll get back at him at some point, Piper can be a very patient and single-minded hunter when she wants to be, so yeah, poor Tony. Buahaha, Piper is not speaking from personal experience, thank God, but she did/does read A LOT, so she knows a bunch of random things like that. Now to answer your question, I originally wanted Piper to have more of a 'mutant' like appearance, one that wasn't considered beautiful/pretty in the conventional sense, but had a certain amount of attractiveness because of her strangeness, you know? Ears and a tail never actually even crossed my mind when I was creating Piper, they just never really fit into the image I had of her. I totally just tried to picture her with ears and a tail, and, well, I laughed. Loudly. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!


	6. Chapter 6: You Have A Condition

Piper gasped sharply in agony and surprise as she was thrown through the glass window behind her, along with Bruce and Natasha. Disoriented, she tried to twist her body around so she would land on all fours, but her eyes were blurry, her ears were ringing and she didn't know which was up and which way was down. She hit the metal grate below the window on her stomach with a resounding clang, her head smacking against the metal surface hard enough to knock her unconscious and crack her skull.

Natasha landed beside her and slightly further up on the grate, the blast blowing her lighter frame farther than it had Piper's heavier one. Natasha's skull connected with the metal grate, knocking her unconscious for long enough that she didn't feel the heavy metal pipe that fell down after them land on her ankle, nor did she hear the sickening crack of the pipe landing on Piper's back, snapping her spine like a toothpick. The red-haired agent groaned as she regained consciousness moments after falling and she shook her head slightly to clear black dots from her vision, pushing herself up slightly to turn and look at the pipe pinning her ankle to the metal grate. She grunted and tried to pull her ankle out from under the pipe, panting slightly as it throbbed in protest.

_"Romanoff?"_

Giving up for the moment, Natasha touched her ear piece to respond to Fury's unspoken question.

"We're okay." She rasped then she looked over at Bruce and her green eyes widened in fear when she saw him panting and straining a few feet from her on Piper's other side, "We're okay, right?" Natasha began trying to wiggle her ankle free again, stopping only when she noticed the completely still figure trapped under the pipe, "Lennart?"

"Lennart?" Natasha tried again when she didn't get a response and she tentatively reached out, grasping the woman's shoulder and giving it a shake, "Piper?"

Dull-gray hair shrouded the other woman's face, so the redheaded agent pushed it away and the air in her lungs left her in a rush of barely suppressed panic. Flat gunmetal gray orbs stared back at her blankly from an ashen face, the slit pupils wide. Natasha quickly jerked her hand away and turned her body slightly, struggling fiercely against the pipe pinning her ankle.

"Damn it." The red-haired spy hissed, taking in several deep breaths to calm herself before she looked over at Bruce worriedly, "Doctor?"

Bruce groaned in reply, his face pressed into the grate and his fists clenched tightly by his head as his muscles spasmed beneath his shirt in full body tremors.

"Bruce?" Natasha whispered again, her tone almost pleading as she watched him, "You got to fight this. This is just what Loki wants."

The doctor didn't turn to look at her as he pushed himself onto his hands and knees, panting heavily and straining for control.

"We're going to be okay. Listen to me." Natasha pleaded in a another effort to calm the man down.

"Are you hurt?"

Terror filled the redhead and she pushed herself up, waving one arm frantically at the two repairmen that had appeared among the pipes. The two men noticed the struggling doctor and their eyes became huge before they began shoving each other back the way they'd come. Natasha exhaled in brief relief and turned her head to look at Bruce again, only to suck in a sharp breath of shock and disbelief when she noticed Piper's fingers twitching slightly. A muffled groan ripped her from her astonishment and alarm rushed through her as she looked back at Bruce.

"We're going to be okay. Alright?" Natasha spoke in a rush, pulling and straining against the pipe on her ankle as she stared at the struggling doctor, "I swear on my life, I will get you out of this. You will walk away and never ever-"

"**_You're_ _life?!_**" Bruce cut the agent off with a monstrous roar as he finally turned his head to look at the incapacitated S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with a feral snarl.

Natasha stopped breathing for a moment as she watched with terror-filled eyes as the mild mannered and self-deprecating doctor's body jerked violently before he pushed himself to his knees. His back arched in pain as his muscled roiled and enlarged beneath his skin, stretching and ripping his shirt at the seams.

Panic bubbling inside her, Natasha strained to pull her ankle out from under the pipe, shifting the heavy metal slightly. She glanced at Bruce as she struggled, watching as he shuffled backwards, off the grated platform they'd fallen on and onto the floor below on his hands and knees.

"Bruce..." Natasha rasped as she caught the doctor's gaze from above when he looked back at her with helpless brown eyes just before the humanity faded from his face and was replaced by an inhuman rage.

She watched, silent and terrified, as the huge monster that used to be Bruce, lurched to his feet and stumbled forward several steps, his shoulders heaving as he panted. Shaking herself out of her stupor, Natasha strained one last time, finally pulling her ankle out from under the pipe and she quickly staggered to her feet as quietly as she could. The redhead paused and glanced down at the still unmoving Piper, before she limped towards the maintenance staircase as silently as she was able to. She paused for just a moment on the first step and looked over her shoulder at the Hulk's massive back.

Natasha felt her heart stutter in her chest and her blood freeze in her veins when, as if sensing her gaze, the green monster turned his head slightly and caught sight of her. She lurched forward, limping up the staircase as fast as she could as the Hulk whirled around with a thunderous roar and lunged after her.

Jumping up, Natasha swung herself up onto the landing the stairs led to and slipped between the bars easily, evading the Hulk's grasping hands just as a full-throated, high-pitched scream ripped through the air. Fear, primal and ancient, chocked Natasha at the bestial sound, but she didn't stop to contemplate what kind of new monster had made the noise as she continued to utilize her impressive agility and flexibility to swing from and slither through the pipes in the ceiling while the Hulk tore aggressively at the grates beneath her.

She dropped to the ground silently and darted away as fast as she could with her injured ankle, the Hulk roaring and crashing after her with single-minded ferocity.

* * *

Pain. Mind blowing, bloodcurdling, bone-chilling pain, the likes of which she hadn't felt in over two decades coursed its way through Piper's battered body, setting every nerve on fire and cramping every muscle in her body. She was screaming in agony before her eyes had even opened and when they did finally snap open, all she saw was darkness. That didn't matter to her at the moment though, because the pain was clouding her mind, nausea rolling through her as she tried to push herself up onto her hands and knees. Her arms shook with strain and sweat beaded her hairline and dripped down her face before she collapsed back onto her stomach with a animalistic roar of pain and fury, the strange heaviness on her back keeping her pinned down.

Piper began to thrash wildly as blind panic, like that of a cornered animal, welled up inside her, further clouding her mind even as the darkness shrouding her vision gradually cleared. With another deep, full-throated roar of bestial fear and anger, Piper surged up onto her hands and knees with all her strength, forcefully throwing the pipe that had held her down off her back and into a nearby wall with a resounding crash of metal on metal.

Broken vertebrae snapped and popped grotesquely as they realigned and knitted themselves back together. Piper arched her back and snarled raggedly, spittle dripping from her bared teeth, as she tore at her clothes with her elongated claws, the velvet bag landing unnoticed a few feet from her. She rolled off the platform and landed on her hands and knees again as newly bared skin suddenly split, spilling short, grayish fur. Bones shifted, grew, and realigned while muscles boiled and swelled until a seven-and-a-half-foot-tall nightmare of a humanoid surged upright and stumbled to its feet in Piper's place just as rage-filled roar echoed through the carrier.

Aptly labeled _Homo superior panthera leo atrox_ in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database, the monstrous creature lifted her head, her features a nightmarish chimera of human and feline with eyes like scarlet fire. Twin pads of an upper lip split with a snarl, revealing three-inch canines as another roar filled the silence. Throwing her shaggy mane of silvery-gray hair out of her face with a toss of her head, the female mutant opened her mouth and sound like thunder spilled forth from the open maw in challenge to all. The rumble died down slowly before lashing out again and again in a rough barking cough, picking up speed until it reached a crescendo of frightening proportions. The sound rolled throughout the Helicarrier, unstoppable, deafening, and utterly terrifying to those that heard it.

* * *

Agent Maria Hill's heart stuttered and lurched up into her throat, her blue eyes widening with fear as a primitive roar echoed from deep within the Helicarrier. Her fellow agents on the bridge all froze and looked around with fearful eyes as the sound slowly faded. Agent Hill lifted a shaky hand to her earpiece.

"S-sir?" She rasped, her voice shaking slightly, "Was that-"

_"Lennart." _Fury replied in a tense tone, _"Send out an alert, all agents to the bridge. I'm on my way."_

"Yes, sir."

* * *

The Hulk froze in his attack on the blonde man with the hammer as a thunderous, rolling cry reached his ears. Whirling around, the green rage monster spread his arms out wide and roared back challengingly, panting heavily as the sound slowly died down to a low rumble deep in his chest. He grunted when the blonde man abruptly slammed into him from behind and he wrenched the man from his back, tossing him away with a furious bellow before charging after him.

* * *

Her red eyes gleaming, feral and untamable, Piper closed her jaws with a click as her roar died down to a mere echo. She licked her lips when an answering roar reached her ears and she pivoted on her heel, running towards the sound with a predatory smile.

* * *

Slumped against the wall, Natasha froze and choked on air at the bestial roar that echoed from the direction she had come from with the Hulk chasing after her. She shuddered and pressed herself against the wall as closely as she could, clenching her eyes shut tightly as the Hulk's answering roar assaulted her ears from the hole in the metal wall of the aircraft hanger in front of her.

The red-haired spy suddenly heard the rapid pitter-patter of someone running in her direction and she shifted, peeking carefully around the wall to see who, or what, was coming. Natasha slammed herself flat against the wall again and pressed her hand against her mouth to muffle the sound of her frightened panting after she caught a glimpse of the monster loping down the walkway with an inhuman grace.

The monster froze mid-step and turned towards the redhead slowly, head tilted to the side in an almost curious manner. Natasha swallowed thickly as she stared into a pair of hellish vermillion eyes, her body trembling against her will and goose bumps spread across her limbs while the hair at the back of her neck stood on end.

Natasha suppressed a whimper when the beast crouched down in front of her and the nightmarish chimera of feline and human features became fully visible. The twin pads of the monster's upper lip split in a cruel smile before its maw opened.

"You should run."

Natasha blanched, unable to move or tear her eyes away, as the creature straightened and leapt through the hole in the metal wall Thor and the Hulk had created. She shuddered and closed her eyes as the realization that the creature was Piper Lennart crashed through her mind. The monster's voice had been a rough, purring growl, deeper than the gray-haired woman's, but still undeniably her voice. Natasha swallowed again and tried to calm herself down, taking deep breaths that were more like pants.

* * *

Panting slightly, Thor grabbed his hammer from the floor where it had landed after he'd thrown it at the Hulk then he ran and leapt onto the beast's back, placing Mjolnir's handle against the Hulk's throat and gripping the head of the hammer with his free hand. The Hulk growled and snarled, thrashing his massive body and scrabbling at the hammer's handle pressing against his throat as Thor pulled it tighter.

The god gritted his teeth and leaned back further, pulling either end of the hammer harder. In his current position, he could see clear over the beast's head and what he saw caused his eyes to widen and nearly loose his grip on the makeshift garrote.

Humanoid in appearance and easily identifiable as female by the full, round breasts that sat high on her chest, she was like no creature Thor had ever seen before. Leanly built with long legs and arms, she was covered in short, grayish fur with darker gray rosettes dappling her shoulders, sides, stomach, and thighs and she was staring fixatedly at the Hulk with predatory red eyes out of a face that was at once terrifying and stunning in its unearthliness.

The Hulk noticed the female as well and briefly stopped in his struggle to remove Thor from his back. The green rage monster breathed heavily as he locked eyes with the female creature, his fists clenching and unclenching slowly at his sides.

The female suddenly snarled and rushed at the green beast and the god, clawed fingers digging into the metal floor as she ran on all fours. The Hulk roared and spread his arms out in challenge, completely forgetting about the god still attached to his back as he charged forward to meet the female.

Thor quickly released the top of his hammer and dropped from the Hulk's back, rolling out of the way just as the two beasts collided. The god pushed himself to his knees and stared in disbelief as the green beast and the female humanoid-feline grappled with each other only feet away from him. Clutching his hammer tightly in his hand, Thor pushed himself to his feet and, glancing briefly over his shoulder at the two dueling creatures, hurried from the hanger to search for his brother.

* * *

Piper snarled and snapped her jaws inches from the Hulk's face, his massive hands on her shoulders the only thing keeping her from tearing his green face off with her teeth. She locked her hands his arms, her teeth bared as she dug her claws into the tough flesh as they strained against one another. Finally, the Hulk's greater strength won out and he flung the female mutant away from him with an angry roar.

The feline woman twisted in midair and landed in on all fours, sinking her claws into the floor as she skidded back several feet, leaving several deep furrows in the metal flooring. The Hulk roared again and stomped after the female with a guttural growl. Muscles bunching beneath her fur-covered flesh, Piper propelled herself up and over the green rage monster, flipping around to land on her feet behind him.

Her feet barely touched the ground before she was once again airborne, this time landing on the Hulk's back before he could turn to face her and locking her long legs around his waist. The Hulk growled and thrashed around, struggling to rip the feral woman from his back while she clawed at his shoulders and upper chest.

Roaring thunderously in rage, the Hulk leapt into the air and crashed through the hanger's ceiling and up through the floor above. Piper rolled away from the green beast and into a crouch, shaking her head to clear her blurry vision. She snarled and growled rabidly at the male monster, the twin pads of her upper lip curled to bare her teeth in an unfriendly way.

The Hulk lurched to his feet and shook his head before he crouched and held his arms out wide, roaring at the female mutant challengingly. Piper roared back at him furiously, the twin pads of her upper lip curled back into a snarl of acceptance as she barreled towards the bigger beast with her claws extended. The Hulk snarled back and swung his huge fists at her as she slashed at him with her claws. The female mutant ducked and dodged some of his blows, scoring his chest and sides with her claws before she was batted away from him, destroying furniture and the walls of the room. But no matter how many times or hard he hit and threw her, she always came charging back, ready to rend his flesh with her claws and teeth

Blinking her eyes dazedly after a particularly brutal backhand to the head that tossed her clear across the room and into a wall, Piper stumbled to her feet with a ragged, feral growl. The Hulk snarled back at her in response, his knees bent a little bit and his arms held slightly out to the side with his fists clenched. The air leaving her lungs in heavy pants, the female mutant's thighs tensed just before she ran at the green beast. The Hulk roared and pounded at his chest with one fist before he charged forward to meet her in the middle of the room, but at the last possible second, Piper dove to the ground. She slashed at the Hulk's inner thighs as she rolled between his legs, coming up into crouch behind him. Quickly pivoting on her heels, the female creature vaulted into the air and onto the Hulk's back, her legs wrapping tightly around his waist once again while her hands gripped his shoulders tightly, her claws digging deeply into the thick muscle.

Growling thunderously in rage, the Hulk whirled around and shook himself violently in an attempt to dislodge her from his back. He roared in pain when she suddenly sank her teeth into his he reached over his shoulder with a massive hand to rip her from his back. His hand met something soft and he tangled his fingers around it, forcefully wrenching it towards him.

Piper released his shoulder with a yowl of pain as the green beast's hand wrapped around her hair and pulled. Green blood stained her mouth as she flailed on his back, spitting and hissing as he continued to tug her hair violently. Keeping a firm grip on the silvery-gray hair in his right hand, the Hulk reached over his shoulder with his left and grabbed the back of the female mutant's neck, throwing her aggressively over his shoulder and into the metal floor.

Snarling in fury, Piper clawed at the hand still wrapped in her hair as she struggled to her knees, lashing out violently with her other hand. The Hulk grunted angrily and pulled on her hair, roughly wrenching her head back so she was looking up at the green beast, her feline-like face twisted into a feral expression of wrath. The two panted heavily as they glared at each other, feral crimson eyes locking onto angry green orbs.

"Let. Me. _Go__!_" Piper hissed between her pants, her voice a harsh growl that rumbled from deep within her heaving chest.

He glared down at her and a low grumble thrummed from the Hulk's massive chest as he continued to breath heavily through his nose, his thick fingers remaining tangled in her silvery-gray hair. Suddenly, a hail of bullets shattered the glass window behind the Hulk and slammed into his muscular back. The green rage monster tossed the female away from himself and whirled around to face the jet hovering outside the Helicarrier with a roar, shielding his face from the bullets with an arm.

Snarling, the Hulk took a step back and charged towards the shattered window. He leapt out of the window and sailed through the air towards the jet, landing on the nose with a heavy thud. The Hulk grunted and growled as he slammed his fist into the nose of the jet for purchase and began climbing towards the cockpit, his feet slipping slightly on the aircraft canopy before he was able to find purchase on the metal behind the cockpit. With a rumbling growl, the green beast began tearing huge pieces of metal off the jet and tossing them into the air.

A muffled thump reached the Hulk's ears and he looked up, snarling angrily when he saw the female mutant crouched on the jet's nose. Piper snarled back at him and scaled up the jet like a lizard, her claws digging into the metal then the heavy-duty acrylic of the canopy above the cockpit as it began to loose altitude and spiral out of control.

The cockpit suddenly flipped upward as the pilot ejected from the falling fighter jet, sending Piper crashing into the Hulk's chest. The Hulk roared and snatched the pilot from the air with one hand while wrapping his other arm around the female mutant and clutching her, upside down, to his chest.

Piper yowled and squirmed irately against the Hulk's grasp, clawing at the arm folded around her middle and kicking her feet at his head. The green beast roared when the heel of her foot contacted with his jaw and he tossed the pilot away from him so he could focus on the struggling female he held.

Flipping her around and holding her up so her face was level with his, the Hulk roared in her face and shook her aggressively as she thrashed in his grip. He was about to throw her away from him like he did the pilot when the jet suddenly exploded, sending them both flying. The Hulk roared loudly, now practically cradling Piper's limp form to his chest and almost curling around her as they flew through the air.

* * *

_"Sir? We've lost the Hulk along with M-TS 17. Thor's gone as well."_

A muscle in Fury's cheek twitched and he pressed his finger to his earpiece as he watched the medical staff pick Agent Coulson's limp body off the floor and carry it from the room that used to house the cell designed for the Hulk.

"Copy that." The director replied tightly, his gaze remaining on the gurney until it disappeared from his sight, "Bring Stark and Rodgers to the bridge."

* * *

Fury stood in front of the arrow-shaped conference table on the bridge, looking down at the Captain America trading cars in his hand and not at the two men sitting at the table.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." Fury commented flatly as he held up the cards then tossed them onto the table towards Steve, "I guess he never did get you to sign them."

Steve swallowed quietly and reached out a hand, picking up one of the bloody cards as Fury continued to speak.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Lennart, Thor... I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye." The director said in a monotone then he chuckled humorlessly, "And it wasn't Lennart's fault this time."

Tony stared blankly at the ground between his feet, the back of his chair facing Fury and Steve.

"Maybe I had that coming." Fury continued quietly, resting his hands on the table for a brief moment before he straightened and began walking around it, "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier." The S.H.I.E.L.D. director stopped and rested his hands on the back of the chair next to Steve briefly before he continued moving, "There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative."

Tony lifted his head and glared out at the space in front of him to avoid looking at Fury, appearing to be ignoring the director even as the man himself leaned against the chair between him and Steve, the chair that Piper had claimed as her own.

"The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more." Fury explained as he folded his arms over the back of the chair and bowed his head slightly, "To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could." He straightened and looked down at the top of Tony's head, "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."

Tony lurched to his feet, glancing around for a moment in apparent disorientation before he stalked away from the bridge, his shoulders tensed and his fists clenched at his sides. Fury turned slightly and watched the billionaire leave without protest, then he sighed.

"Well," The director murmured as he clasped his hands behind back, "It's an old fashioned notion, anyway."

Steve watched as the director walked away then he looked back at the bloody card in his hand. He stared at the image of himself on the card for several seconds before gently placing it back on the table with the others, standing and leaving the bridge a moment later.

* * *

Piper shifted and groaned heavily at the soreness that coursed through her limbs with the movement. She tried to lift her head, but the nausea that surged through her thwarted her attempt, so she let it fall back down onto the firm surface it had been resting on before she'd regained consciousness. Suddenly, her impromptu pillow groaned and shifted beneath her, startling her enough that she lifted her head with no regards to the consequences.

"Oh _shit._" Piper moaned and let her head dropped her head back on Bruce's very naked chest when her vision swam, "Screw it, this _sucks. _I don't care what Nicky says, I wanna go back to my nice, little underground cell, saving the world is not worth all this _shit_."

Bruce groaned again and opened his eyes slowly, wincing and blinking rapidly when his retinas were assaulted by the faint sunlight streaming in through the broken roof above him. He shifted again and lifted his head up slightly, staring down at the head of silvery-gray hair that covered most of his chest like a blanket.

"You two fell out of the sky."

Blinkingly dumbly at the warm and _very_ naked female body that was covering his own equal nude form, it took a moment for the statement to register in Bruce's mind. The doctor pushed himself up onto one elbow and rubbed the grit from his eyes before squinting at the older man dressed in a security guard uniform standing at the top of the small crater that was in a pile of rubble he and Piper were lying in the middle of.

"Did I hurt anybody?" Bruce asked worriedly as he sat up further, subtly trying to slip out from under the female mutant, who didn't seem to want to move.

The security guard quirked a brow at the scene, tucking his hands into his pockets as he observed the awkward and vaguely panicked expression on the man's face.

"There's nobody around here to get hurt." The security guard finally replied, gesturing around at the abandoned building they were in then he chuckled, "You two did scare the hell out of some pigeons, though."

"Lucky."

Piper mumbled something unintelligible when Bruce shifted again, swatting at his side halfheartedly and pressing her face closer to his chest before bringing her hands up to cover her head.

"Stop moving around so much." Piper whined pathetically against his chest without lifting her head, "And talking so loud, dammit. Holy _shit_, my head hurts..."

"Piper." Bruce muttered in exasperation, bringing his hand up to rub at his forehead while trying to think of a way to move the woman lying on top of him.

The man smirked slightly at the two, "Or just good aim. You, big fella, were awake when you two fell."

Piper finally lifted her head and blinked blearily at the security guard, "You saw?"

"The whole thing. Right through the ceiling." The man replied, watching in interested as the gray-haired woman pushed herself up into a sitting position, "Big, green, and buck-ass nude with a furry gray thing in its arms."

"Huh." Piper muttered, scratching at her head and grimacing at the grit she felt gathering under her claws before she let her hands rest on Bruce's chest, "Well that's...there are really no words for that."

Bruce's mouth went dry and he flushed deeply, swallowing heavily as he stared up at female mutant with wide brown eyes. She either didn't notice or merely didn't care about their mutual nakedness and the rather compromising position they were in, and Bruce was betting it was the latter.

He shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat, "Piper, could you, uh..."

"Hmm?" Piper looked down at him with a quirked brow then she smirked lasciviously when she noticed the strained, awkward expression on his face, "What's up, Doc?"

"Y-you, um..." Bruce faltered, his face heated up even more when he felt her hands lightly run up his chest and he shivered, "Dammit."

He sat up fully and grabbed her by the waist, hurriedly dumping her on the rubble beside him without looking directly at her. Piper laughed in her feline way and pushed herself up on to her elbows, batting her eyelashes coquettishly when Bruce glanced at her, his expression an odd mix of embarrassment, tension, and sheepishness.

The security guard suddenly cleared his throat from above them and Bruce blushed darker at the knowing look on the older man's face while Piper merely smiled without showing her teeth.

"Here." The security guard said as he grabbed the pile of clothes at his feet and tossed them down to the man and woman, "Didn't think those would fit ya until you shrunk down to a regular-size fella. Would've brought them down, but it looked like the lady's teeth could take off an arm."

Piper snickered and snatched a pair of pants from the pile, "Yeah, I get that a lot."

Bruce glanced at her and nearly choked on his own saliva when she stood up and began wiggling into the pants, apparently not caring in the slightly that she was totally naked and in the presence of two men. To distract himself from watching her lean down and grab a shirt from the pile, Bruce grabbed the second pair of pants from the pile.

"Thank you." The doctor said to the security guard as he started to pull the pants up his legs.

"Yeah," Piper grunted out of obligation as she scowled down at the button-up shirt she was trying to fasten closed, her claws making the process somewhat difficult, "Thanks."

"Are you two aliens?" The man asked curiously as he watched them get dressed.

"What?" Bruce questioned as he stood up, pulling the pants up the rest of the way and buttoning them before looking up at the man with a perplexed expression.

The security guard gestured towards the ceiling like it was obvious, "From outer space, aliens."

"Uh, no." The doctor replied, looking down and grabbing the larger pair of boots that were among the clothes.

"Well," The man said gravelly as he looked at them with a serious expression, "Then you two have a condition."

Bruce glanced at the man and nodded slightly in agreement, before continuing to put the boots on in silence. Piper snorted as she gave up on buttoning the shirt and instead tied it around her chest like it was a sarashi.

"Oh, you have _no_ idea, mister."

* * *

Back on the Helicarrier, Tony stared blankly at the empty space where the Hulk's cage used to be with his hands clasped behind his back. His gaze never waved from the empty space and he made no move to acknowledge Steve when he came into the large room, leaning back against the railing and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Was he married?"

"No." Tony replied without looking at the other man, "There was a cellist, I think."

Steve was silent for a moment before he apologized softly, "I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot." Tony scoffed and looked over at captain as he unclasped his hands.

"Why?" The super soldier demanded as he straightened slightly from his slouch, "For believing?"

Tony rolled his eyes and began walking backwards, off the short walkway he'd been standing on with his arms swinging with nervous energy at his sides.

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league." The billionaire retorted with another scoff as he stood on the landing that led to the lower level Steve was on, "He should have waited. He should have..."

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Steve said gently after the other man had trailed off mid-sentence and he took a few steps forward.

"Right," Tony snapped back with an eye roll, walking down the short set of stairs and past the super soldier, "I've heard that before."

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

"We are not soldiers." Tony snarled as he whirled around with a thunderous expression then he swallowed and looked way from Steve, "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I." The captain replied with a small nod, "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we got to put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list-"

"He made it personal." Tony said abruptly and he looked at Steve after staring intently at the bloodstain on the wall.

"That's not the point." Steve said patiently, but firmly.

"That _is_ the point." The billionaire insisted as his mind whirled, "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

Steve looked at the other man perplexedly even as he answered, "To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great," Tony muttered distractedly, folding one arm over his chest and gesturing wildly with his other hand, "But he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it." Tony waved a finger at Steve as he walked passed him, "He wants an audience."

"Right." Steve said slowly turning around to follow the billionaire's path with his eyes, "I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah, that was just the previews." Tony commented rapidly as he walked up the steps again and turned to face Steve, "This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants monuments build to the skies with his name-" Realization hit Tony like Thor's hammer and his eyes went wide.

"Son of a _bitch!_"

The billionaire darted out the room, Steve rushing after him with a confused expression.

* * *

Piper hopped out of the small crater in the pile of rubble after she had buckled the belt she'd found with the clothes around her waist, peering around her curiously. Behind her, Bruce glanced around the warehouse with interest as he pulled on the remaining shirt, buttoning it up as he walked carefully out of the rubble after the woman.

"So which one is it?" The security guard asked as he walked around the rubble pile to stand in front of it across from Bruce.

The doctor gave him a confused look as he finished buttoning the shirt, "Sorry?"

"Are you a big guy that gets all little?" The security guard clarified as he gestured with his hands, "Or are you a little guy that, uh, sometimes blows up large?"

Piper snickered quietly at the question as she walked up to stand beside Bruce, her arm brushing against his slightly.

"You know," Bruce replied with a self-deprecating smile and a small shrug, "I'm not sure."

The man nodded in understanding, "You two got somewhere to go?"

"Stark Tower...I-uh, no." Bruce replied unsurely, faltering slightly at the skeptical look on the security guard's face and he nodded slowly, "Yes."

Piper smiled in a satisfied way, her tense shoulders relaxing at his answer.

"I'd expect some confusion of the mind, since your body is kind of all over the place." The older man commented patiently, gesturing for the two to follow him as he started walking towards the gaping hole in the warehouse wall, "But, it has to be one or the other."

Bruce looked at the man with an insecure expression as he walked beside him, Piper keeping step with him on his other side like a gray-haired shadow.

"I know where I can do the most good." The doctor replied slowly as he began tucking his shirt into his pants while they walked, "But it's where I could do the most harm."

The older man laughed slightly as they walked through the hole and out of the warehouse, "Well, that's no different from anybody else."

Piper laughed lightly and put her hand on Bruce's shoulder, giving it a little shake as she grinned at the security guard, "Now that, that is the truest thing I've ever heard."

The corners of Bruce's mouth twitched upward in amusement and he shook his head slightly at her. The older man gave her a startled look at the brief flash of her fangs, his eyes wide.

The security guard cleared his throat and led them to an old shed a few yards away from the warehouse, opening it to reveal an old, beat-up dirt bike.

"Right, well here you go." The man stated as he took a key off a hook by the door and gestured at the bike, "You can use this to get wherever you need to go."

"Thank you." Bruce said sincerely as he took the key the man handed him and walked into the shed. He backed the bike out of the shed and straddled it, starting it up with a quick turn of the key then he glanced over his shoulder at Piper, "Ready?"

"Hmm, stay here where there's nothing for me to kill or head to Stark Tower with you where an alien invasion is waiting to help a power-hungry Norse god take over the world." Piper quipped drily with an eye roll that caused Bruce to grin slightly, "Did you really even need to ask?"

Bruce chuckled slightly and gesturing towards the small space behind him with his chin. Piper grinned widely as she slipped onto the bike behind him and wrapped her arms snugly around his waist, gunmetal gray eyes gleaming with excitement.

"If you're heading to Stark Tower, the road is in that direction." The man said and helpfully pointed them in the right direction before stepping back from the bike.

"Let's go kick some alien ass!" Piper cheered, tossing her hands into the air with a beaming smile.

Bruce chuckled slightly at the woman before he inclined his head in gratitude at the security guard and pressed on the throttle, turning the bike in the direction the other man had indicated. Still grinning, Piper wrapped her arms around Bruce's waist again and rested her chin on his shoulder.

* * *

**Author's Note: Ohmigawd, this chapter! I don't even know what to say about this chapter, other than I love it! Absolutely, posi-tutely love it! I don't even care if Piper's 'alter ego' makes her seem Mary Sue-ish because I adore that part of her too much! Totally tooting my own horn here, but really, I feel like I outdid myself with this chapter, especially the fight seen between the Hulk and Piper. So ridiculously freaking proud of that scene. On a side note, here's a brief explanation for the _Homo superior panthera leo atrox _bit, _Homo superior _refers to scientific-y term the comics use for mutants, _Homo sapiens superior_ and _panthera leo atrox_ refers to what species of animal Piper shares her DNA with. I might change that bit later, so I won't mention what it is, but if you want to look it, you can. All opinions on it would be much appreciated and help me decided it I should change it to something else. Anyhooties, I hope y'all like this chapter as much as I do!**

**Special THANKS to everyone that faved and/or alerted! You guys are freaking awesome-sauce!**

**SPECIAL MENTIONS!**

**Jesskalynn4: **Thanks, I hope you like this chapter!

**Laveycee: **Yeah, that's probably true. XD Haha, I'm glad you liked that bit, I always that it was Steve and Tony arguing while the world was in peril was hilarious. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**LadyAmazon: **Aw thanks, I'm glad you like the new Piper! I hope you like this chapter!

**Molly Grace 16: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Haha, it's probably okay to be a little disturbed, since that was pretty much Piper's goal. She most likely wouldn't eat him, at least I don't think she would, she's kind of an unpredictable character. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Protagonist Of Life: **That was pretty awesome, huh? I felt so witty when I thought of it. As for your question, I will most definitely try to continue the story after the invasion, maybe include a small time villain from the comics or just make up my own for a few chapters, then maybe have some Iron Man 3 references somewhere, possibly some Thor 2 stuff too. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**The Warden: **Haha, I'm glad you liked the last chapter! I hope you like this speedy update!

**Dhalmi93: **Thanks! I hope you like this chapter!

**Kit-cat99: **Yay, I'm glad you liked it! Haha, that idea sounds awesome, I'll have to use it in a later chapter, but I hope you like the little scene with Piper lying on Bruce in this chapter until I can get that idea written out!

**Anon Guest: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the last chapter and the humorous Tony/Piper interactions! I hope you like the Piper/Hulk interactions in this chapter!


	7. Chapter 7: Things Could Get A Lot Worse

"What about Banner and Lennart?" Steve asked urgently as he followed Tony through the halls of the Helicarrier after the billionaire had explained to him what he believed Loki's plan was.

"Are you kidding? Killing things is like catnip for Pippi." Tony called back over his shoulder, "Don't worry, they'll be there. You just worry about suiting up and getting Natasha."

Steve nodded in acknowledgement and continued down the hall towards the medical bay while Tony headed to the lower levels of the carrier where he could make some repairs to his Iron Man suit.

Catching sight of the redheaded agent standing in one of the patient rooms through the window, Steve quickly opened the sliding door to the room.

"Time to go."

Natasha looked at him in confusion, "Go where?"

"I'll tell you on the way." Steve replied succinctly, "Can you fly one of those jets?"

The bathroom door suddenly opened and Clint Barton stepped out, drying his hands on a towel.

"I can."

Steve looked at him suspiciously then glanced at Natasha for confirmation. The redhead met his gaze and inclined her head slightly in reply.

"Got a suit?" The captain asked the formerly mind-controlled archer.

"Yeah."

"Then suit up." Steve ordered before leaving the med-bay, the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents following after him.

* * *

Once they had suited up and geared themselves, Steve led Natasha and Clint through one of the aircraft hangers, ignoring the other agents bustling around them.

"Hey, hey," One of the pilots that were working inside the jet said as he stood to intercept the three, "You guys aren't authorized to be in here."

"Son," Steve replied unyieldingly with a stern look, "Just don't."

* * *

"Sir?" Agent Hill quietly approached where Fury was standing in front of the wall of windows at the front of the bridge.

"Agent Hill."

"Agent Coulson kept those cards in his locker," The dark-haired woman said slowly, gesturing slightly to the bloody Captain America trading cards the director was looking at, "Not in his jacket."

Fury sighed quietly and replied without looking away from the cards he held, "They need a push."

_"We have an unauthorized departure from Bay 6."_

The director looked up at the window and watched as Stark in his Iron Man suit flew away from the Helicarrier, a Quinjet flying after him a moment later. Agent Hill glanced out the window, understanding dawning on her as she watched the jet and the billionaire fly off.

"They found him." Fury commented with a small amount of pride as he watched the Quinjet and Iron Man fly off before he addressed Agent Hill, "Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do." He turned to head back to the helm, "I want eyes on everything."

"Yes, sir." Agent Hill replied deferentially, finally understanding Fury's methods even if she still didn't agree with them completely.

* * *

_"Sir, I've turned off the arc reactor, but the device is self-sustaining."_ JARVIS stated as Tony flew to the top of his building.

Tony frowned slightly as he hovered above Stark Tower and looked down at Erik Selvig, who was standing in front of the device that would open the portal.

"Shut it down, Selvig."

"It's too late!" Dr. Selvig cried out maniacally as he turned to look up at Tony before he looked almost reverently at the device, "She can't stop now. She wants to show us something. A _new_ universe!"

"Okay." Tony muttered sarcastically and he shot two blasts from his hand repulsors at the device, but a blue force field appeared around it and repelled the blasts back at him.

The billionaire grunted as the blasts struck him in the chest and sent him tumbling through the air before he managed to stabilize himself.

_"The barrier is pure energy."_ JARVIS commented after a quick scan, _"It's unbreachable."_

"Yeah, I got that." Tony retorted drily and he glanced down, his eyes narrowing when he saw Loki watching him from the balcony, "Plan B."

_"Sir, the Mark VII_ _is not ready for deployment."_ The A.I. protested as much as a computer program could.

"Then skip the spinning rims." Tony snapped back as he touched down on the landing area to the left of the balcony, "We're on the clock."

Tony watched Loki walk into his building with disdain as he headed into the tower, the machines that made up the walkway removing his suit as he moved.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki drawled sardonically as he stepped fully into the tower at the same time as Tony.

"Uh, actually, I'm planning to threaten you." Tony replied nonchalantly, folding his hands behind his back as he sauntered towards the bar.

Loki chuckled contemptuously, "You should have left your armor on for that."

"Hmm, yeah." Tony agreed with a bored shrug as he walked down the stairs and slipped behind the bar, "It's seen a bit of mileage and you've got the glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

The god smirked and glanced at his scepter then back at Tony with a quirked brow, "Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no. Threatening." The billionaire corrected him matter-of-factly as he grabbed a decanter of scotch from the shelf, "No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that." Loki said as he turned away from the other man and walked towards one of the many windows that overlooked the sprawling city of Manhattan. He glanced over his shoulder at Tony with a smirk, "What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers." Tony replied nonchalantly as he uncapped the decanter of scotch and glanced up at Loki, smirking slightly at the confused expression on the god's face, "That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. _'Earth's Mightiest Heroes'_ type thing."

"Yes," Loki agreed with a mocking smile as he walked closer to the bar, "I've met them."

"Yeah." The billionaire chuckled sardonically, "It takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that. But let's do a head could here. Your brother, the demigod," Tony smirked slightly when Loki scoffed quietly and surreptitiously slipped a pair of bracelets onto his wrists as he spoke, "A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with _breathtaking_ anger-management issues, a woman who's more animal than human, a couple master assassins, and you big fella," Tony picked up his scotch and gestured at Loki with it, "You've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan." Tony remarked after taking a sip of his drink then he walked around the bar towards Loki with a disdainful expression, "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army." Loki stated, holding his head high and looking down at the billionaire with superiority.

"We have a Hulk _and_ a Piper." Tony retorted instantly as he continued towards the god.

"I thought the beasts had wondered off."

"You're missing the point." Tony snapped in exasperation and he gestured with his hands, "There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. _Maybe_ your army comes and _maybe_ it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll_ avenge_ it."

He stopped moving and took a gulp of his scotch, watching the god over the rim of the glass. Loki glared at the billionaire and stalked across the few feet that separated him and Tony like a predator. Tony found he wasn't nearly as intimidated as the god probably intended him to be. Now if it had been Piper stalking towards him, he might have been concerned, because, knowing what he did about the feral mutant, she would most likely try to eat him. Or rip his guts out of his mouth, depending on her mood.

"How will your friends have time for me," Loki drawled triumphantly as he stalked closer to the billionaire with his scepter raised slightly, "When they are so busy fighting you?"

The god touched the scepter's glowing tip to Tony's chest, a clinking sound filling the air as it connected with the arc reactor. Loki frowned as the glow diminished and nothing happened, while Tony exhaled silently. The god touched the scepter to his chest again, only to receive the same results.

"This usually works." Loki muttered perplexedly with a decidedly miffed expression.

"Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon." Tony quipped offhandedly with a smirk, "One out of five."

Loki furrowed his brows in confusion before his eyes narrowed in realization and he grabbed the billionaire by the jaw, throwing him towards the wall of windows. Tony grunted as he hit the floor and rolled a few paces.

"JARVIS, anytime now." Tony muttered as he slowly pushed himself to his feet, only to grunt in surprise when Loki grabbed him by the throat and raised him slightly in the air.

"You will all fall before_ me_." The god growled into the billionaire's ear menacingly.

"Deploy!" Tony exclaimed and his eyes widened as Loki lifted him further into the air before tossing him towards the windows, "_Deploy!_"

Tony screamed briefly as he went crashed through the window and started freefalling towards the concrete sidewalk below him. The sound of shattering glass reached his ears over the howling wind and he held his arms up, elbows bent and his palms flat. Red lights danced across his arms before landing on the bracelets on his wrists, the trigger glowing red for a brief moment before the Mark VII Iron Man suit was surrounding his body.

The suit clicked completely closed and Tony flipped himself up, starting the thrusters on his feet and stopping his fall only feet above the concrete. Smirking to himself, the billionaire flew back up the broken window where Loki was standing and peering down at the street below. The god looked up and narrowed his eyes when Tony hovered in front of him.

"And there's one other person you pissed off." Tony snapped angrily, "His name was Phil."

Loki raised his scepter, but Tony jerked his hands up and fired off two blasts from the repulsors in his gauntlets. The blasts hit the god in the chest and sent him flying backwards into the room, skidding across the marble floor on his back. A blue-white beam of light suddenly shot into the sky, a dark blue-black hole appearing and expanding.

"Right." Tony muttered wryly as he watched the alien army fly out of the portal, "Army."

He quickly flew towards the expanding wormhole, rolling to the side to avoid a blast from one of the aliens. He grunted and faltered in the air when he hit one of the aircrafts the aliens were driving. The missile launchers clicked up from his shoulders and fired, the small missiles striking several of the alien crafts and blowing them up. He tried to destroy as many of the aliens as he could, but more and more were getting away from him and heading towards the city below.

_"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast." _Natasha's voice suddenly filtered through his helmet.

"What did you stop for drive-thru?" Tony demanded sharply in exasperation, glaring slightly at the image of the redhead that appeared on his HUD before he snorted and flew around his building with several of the Chitauri aircrafts chasing him as he passed the balcony where Thor had appeared and was battling Loki, "Swing up park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

* * *

Piper looked around the city and took in the destruction that the alien army had already caused as Bruce drove the dirt bike down the ruined street.

"Well," She mumbled with a sardonic smirk as she leaned back and looked at where she could see the others fighting several of the aliens, "It's not as bad as I thought it would be."

Bruce chuckled quietly in wry amusement as he increased the bike's speed until they were only a few yards away from the others standing in the middle of the viaduct. As he slowed the dirt bike, Piper stood up and backflipped off the back of the bike while Bruce stood carefully on the foot-pegs as he brought it to a complete stop and leaned it against a slightly flaming car.

Steve approached the two quickly with Natasha, Clint, and Thor following after him, Bruce and Piper walking forward to meet the captain halfway.

"So..." Bruce commented so casually, he almost seemed cheerful, as he glanced around at the destruction surrounding them, "This all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse." Natasha remarked blandly with a pointed glance at the doctor and the woman standing beside him, "A lot worse."

Piper grinned unrepentantly while Bruce smiled sheepishly and apologized, "Sorry."

"No," Natasha replied wryly, "We could use a little worse."

Piper bounced eagerly on the balls of her feet and clapped her hands giddily with a maniacal grin on her face, "Oh this is gonna be _so_ much fun!"

Bruce chuckled wryly at the gray-haired woman's enthusiasm, her gunmetal gray eyes practically sparkling with her excitement. Piper grinned happily at him and shimmied her way over to stand beside Natasha, spending a brief moment to look Clint over curiously.

"So, were you the flying monkey that caused the explosions in the Helicarrier?"

"Yeah."

She smiled and her fist lashed out suddenly. Clint grunted and grabbed at this shoulder, glowering at the female mutant in outrage after she punched him.

Piper smirked at him smugly, "That was for knocking me out a Plexiglas window and causing a pipe to break my spine. Do that again and I'll rip your arm _off_."

Clint eyed woman warily and nodded his head as he rubbed his shoulder, "Right."

"Lennart, focus." Steve chided the feral mutant before bringing his hand up to his ear, "Stark, we got 'em."

_"Banner and Pippi?"_

"Just like you said." The super soldier replied in clear relief.

_"Tell them to suit up." _Tony quipped, the smirk in his voice obvious, _"I'm bringing the party to you."_

Piper looked in the direction she and Bruce had come from and grinned when she saw Tony in his Iron Man suit come flying around the corner with a giant, metal-plated alien leviathan chasing after him. Thor snarled and twirled his hammer around in preparation, blue eyes narrowing with determination.

"I-I don't see how that's a party." Natasha stuttered slightly as she took a step back, her brow furrowing slightly with vague trepidation.

"I do!" Piper chirped with a giddy giggle that caused the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to look at her with vaguely disturbed expressions.

Bruce looked away from the approaching leviathan and met Piper's eyes, their gazes locking. Something undefinable passed between them in that moment and a wry smile of acceptance appeared on his face before he turned around and began walking back down the street.

"Dr. Banner," Steve said and he took a few steps towards the other man with a grave expression as the alien leviathan slid across the street closer to them, "Now would be a good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Captain." Bruce replied as he walked, glancing over his shoulder at the super soldier and the others just as Tony flew over their heads, "I'm _always_ angry."

Piper rocked eagerly on the balls of her feet, her grey eyes riveted to Bruce's form as he turned to face the leviathan with his fist raised, his body growing and morphing into the Hulk as he turned. The Hulk slammed his huge fist into the leviathan's nose and the alien's momentum caused him to skid back while the leviathan began to flip over itself, the metal plating covering it's massive body coming loose and falling off from the blow.

The feral mutant ripped her clothes off with elongated claws and crouched as muscles and bones boiled and skin split, spilling short-grayish fur all across her changing body. Tossing back her mane of silvery-gray hair, a seven-and-a-half-foot nightmare rose to its feet in Piper's place, red eyes flashing from a feline-human chimera of a face. Clint swore and jerked away from the woman just as a thunderous, roiling roar spilled from Piper's gaping maw, three-inch canines gleaming with saliva.

_"Hold on." _Stark's voice reverberated from where he hovered above the group and he raised his arm, firing a missile at the falling leviathan's exposed back.

The missile detonated and the alien leviathan exploded into hundreds of pieces. Steve twisted around and covered himself and Natasha with his shield as they crouched down while Piper crouched and shielded her head with her arms beside them. Clint ducked and rolled over to a turned over car, crouching down beside it and Thor merely raised his arm over his head as the exploding leviathan showered them with bits of metal and flesh, the leviathan's head sliding passed Piper's form and off the viaduct to land on the street below with a metal crash as it crushed a car beneath its weight.

Piper straightened as the bipedal Chitauri that had leapt from the leviathan screeched and howled in anger from the buildings they were clinging too on either side of the street. Bending her knees slightly and spreading her arms out at her sides, the feral female mutant roared long and loud back at them in challenge, the Hulk's own roar joining hers a moment later.

* * *

Tony lowered himself carefully to the ground between Steve and the Hulk, standing in the loose circle the seven had formed as they faced the enraged bipedal aliens.

"Guys..." Natasha muttered after she looked up at the wormhole.

Piper whirled around and snarled, watching as more leviathans and bipedal Chitauri poured from the wormhole in the sky. Beside her the Hulk grunted and growled low in his throat, his fists clenching tightly in preparation.

"Call it, Captain." Tony said, deferring to the super soldier as the other Avengers turned to look up at the portal.

"Alright, listen up." Steve commanded as he looked up at the aliens spreading out across the city in the sky, "Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on the roof, eyes on everything." The super soldier turned to look back at the others and addressed Tony directly, "Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash."

Clint looked over at Tony with a quirked brow, "Can you gimme a lift?"

"Right." Tony replied with a nod of assent as he walked over to the archer and grasped the quiver attached to his back, "Better clench up, Legolas."

"Thor," Steve called out, grabbing the god's attention as Tony launched himself and Clint into the air, "You gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow 'em down. You got the lightning, like the bastards up."

Thor nodded seriously and swung his hammer around before flying into the air. Natasha watched the god fly towards the Chrysler building then she looked over at Steve with a blank, but expectant expression.

"You and me, we stay here on the ground." Steve instructed when he caught the redhead's look, "We keep the fighting here. Hulk..." He looked over at the two monsters standing side-by-side, smirking slightly at the two as they turned to look at him, "Smash."

The Hulk bared his teeth in a feral grin and leapt onto one of the buildings, grabbing the aliens there and crushing them in his large fists before he launched himself onto another building.

Steve looked over at Piper and took a deep breath as he met her feral crimson gaze, "And Piper...Rip their heads off."

The feline-human woman licked her lips and smiled, the twin pads of her upper lips splitting to reveal three-inch fangs before she crouched down and loped down the street on all fours.

* * *

Thor landed on the tall, metal spire in the Midgardian city and clutched at the side with one hand as he peered up at the dark wormhole in the sky. Clenching Mjolnir in his hand, he thrust the hammer up towards the sky and called down lightning. The sky darkened, clouds rolling across the formerly blue sky, and Thor directed the lightning from his hammer into the metal spire then towards the portal, striking the Chitauri leviathans and pushing them back into the wormhole.

* * *

Clint frowned slightly as he kneeled on the roof's ledge, taking out any of the aliens with his bow and arrows.

"Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail." The archer commented when his sharp eyes caught sight of the billionaire with several alien aircrafts chasing after him.

_"I'm just trying to keep them off the streets."_ Tony's reply sounded through Clint's earpiece as the billionaire flew through the building.

"Well, they can't bank worth a damn." Clint stated with a smirk as he shot an arrow at a passing Chitauri aircraft without looking, his eyes tracking the Iron Man's suit flight path, "Find a tight corner."

* * *

"I will roger that." Tony replied to the archer's suggestion as he turned a corner, the aliens still hot on his tail.

He pulled up and twisted around to avoid one of the alien aircrafts after Clint caused it to swerve and collide with another of the vehicles. Thinking quickly as the remaining Chitauri continued to chase him, Tony flew under a low arch and towards another building. He quickly swerved to avoid the building, causing one of the Chitauri to crash while the last two turned to avoid the resulting explosion.

"Oh, boy." Tony muttered in trepidation as he flew into a short tunnel with the two aliens on his tail.

He shot out the other end of the tunnel and banked sharply to the right before he could hit the building across from him. The two alien vehicles hit the building in an explosion of fire and sound.

"Nice call." The billionaire addressed Clint as he looked at his HUD, "What else you got."

_"Thor's taking on a squadron down on Sixth."_

Tony smirked with sardonic irritation, "And he didn't invite me."

* * *

Inside one of the skyscrapers, the corporate workers stared out the window in horror at the alien leviathan flying passed the building. They all began to scream and run away from the building when the leviathan turned and began flying towards the glass windows they were peering out of, its gaping maw revealing sickle teeth.

They all began to scream even louder when a thundering bellow came from the other side of the building, followed by several crashes as a massive green humanoid monster charged through the cubicles and shelves in the large room.

The Hulk roared as he broke through the window and leapt onto the Chitauri leviathan's face, grasping the lower part of its jaw and yanking it off course. The leviathan roared in anger when the Hulk forcefully pulled its jaws apart as he yanked him towards the street below with brute strength alone.

The green rage monster grunted and snarled as he continued to direct the leviathan down the street.

* * *

A high-pitched caterwaul pierced the air over the sounds of battle just as Piper leapt from the car she'd been standing on, her claws hooking into a passing alien aircraft. The female mutant snarled as she flipped herself up onto the craft, her feet making contact with the back of the bipedal Chitauri and knocking it onto its stomach. The alien's thrashing and high-pitched screeching was cut off abruptly as Piper twisted around and stomped on its throat, snapping its neck like a twig.

The twin pads of her upper lip curling back into a feral smirk, Piper lunged at the Chitauri piloting the alien vehicle. She wrapped one clawed hand around its neck and thrust her other hand through its back until it came out the alien's chest, covered in purplish-blue blood and its heart-like organ still pulsing in her hand.

The female mutant ripped her arm from of the alien's body and leapt off the spacecraft and onto the side of a building, watching with unholy glee as the flying vehicle careened into the street and burst into flames. Her red eyes gleamed with predatory delight and she roared her triumph, the sound trailing off into maniacal feline-laughter as she began scaling the side of the building to the top while attacking the Chitauri that were there on the building with her.

* * *

Back on the ground, Natasha grunted as she was slammed onto the dented hood of a wrecked car by one of the aliens. She twisted to the side to avoid the spear that had been thrust at her head then brought one of her legs up and wrapped it around the alien's neck. The redhead sat up quickly and slammed her fingers into the creature's neck, sparks flying as she ripped out something that was most likely vital.

The bipedal Chitauri screeched as he collapsed on top of Natasha before she shoved it away, its spear now in her hands. Bringing the weapon up, the female S.H.I.E.L.D. agent squeezed the rifle-like spear and a purplish-blue blast of energy hit the alien in the chest, killing it. Natasha spun around when she heard a noise come from behind her, panting slightly as she pointed the alien weapon at what she thought was a threat.

Steve held his shield up defensively in front of the weapon, frowning slightly at the redhead as she lowered the alien weapon.

Natasha breathed heavily from her mouth as she turned away from the captain and leaned against the car she'd been pinned to moments earlier as Steve walked closer to her.

"Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." The redhead said as she caught her breath, glancing over her shoulder at the massive portal in the sky above Stark Tower.

Steve looked at the portal as well, "Our biggest guns couldn't touch it."

"Well, maybe it's not about guns."

The captain looked at her perplexedly before his attention was grabbed by the bipedal Chitauri rapidly approaching them from the other end of the viaduct they were standing on.

"If you want to get up there," Steve said slowly as he caught on to the redhead's training of thought while watching the approaching aliens, "You're going to need a ride."

Natasha's upper lip curled slightly into a sneer of satisfaction when she saw several of the Chitauri on their aircrafts approaching and she dropped the spear in her hand, "I got a ride."

Steve looked at her in confusion as she walked to the other side of the viaduct as the alien vehicles flew over their heads.

"I could use a boost though."

Understanding dawned on the super soldier and he backed up several steps, holding his shield up in front of him, "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah." Natasha replied with forced flippancy as she glanced at the alien spacecrafts again, "It's gonna be fun."

Steve nodded and bent his knees slightly as the redhead ran towards him. She pushed off the hood of the red car he was standing beside with one foot before landing on his shield, turning it and the slight upward thrust the captain gave into a makeshift springboard.

Steve lowered his shield slightly and watched in awe as Natasha grabbed the bottom of a passing spacecraft and flew off down the street. His attention was pulled away from the woman when an energy blast struck the wall by his head and he lifted his shield to protect his face from the debris.

Smirking slightly, the captain watched several of the bipedal Chitauri approach him with their rifle-like spears raised, the strange growling clicks coming from behind their visors.

* * *

Natasha grunted slightly as she struggled to pull herself up onto the alien vehicle, her legs kicking out over open air. Finally managing to pull herself onto the craft fully, she held onto the flooring with one hand and pulled a small knife with the other, slashing at the chain that kept the Chitauri manning the gun from flying off the craft.

The alien barely had time to screech before the redhead twisted around and kicked it off the spacecraft. Smirking with self-satisfaction, Natasha pulled herself towards the pilot with some difficult before she leapt onto its back and sank two knifes into it. The alien made strange noises of confusion and anger, but was unable to do anything with her perched on its back.

"Okay, turn, turn." Natasha muttered to herself as she jerked the alien to the side, only to have to adjust her course when she almost crashed into a building, "Less! Less!"

She began swerving slightly to avoid the energy blasts that were being fired at her from another spacecraft before Iron Man blasted the offending Chitauri away from her.

* * *

Tony quickly twisted back around when he saw that Natasha was safe for the moment and he propelled himself towards the bridge where Steve was battling against several of the Chitauri. He dove low and slammed into the aliens, knocking them off the viaduct before he spun around and landed on the ground beside the captain, killing an alien standing behind Steve with his hand repulsor while the captain ducked.

Steve straightened and held up his shield towards Tony, who quickly fired two energy blasts at it. The blasts ricocheted from the shield in a steady beam and Steve directed it towards the remaining Chitauri, frying them easily.

Seeing that the captain had the situation under control, Tony shot back into the sky, blasting several aliens off the side of the buildings as he flew up past Clint, who was shooting an arrow into the face of an alien that was climbing towards him.

Clint straightened from his crouch and spun around, pulling an arrow from his quiver and notching it as he tracked one of the alien aircrafts as it flew passed him. He released the air and watched as it struck the piloting Chitauri in the back, causing the alien vehicle to crash into the nose of a passing leviathan.

* * *

On the back of the leviathan, the Hulk roared furiously as he tossed a bipedal alien from his back before tearing the metal plating from the leviathan's back and throwing it another alien.

The green rage monster snarled and ripped another alien from his back then jumped forward, slamming his massive fists into the metal plating just as Thor landing a few feet in front of him on the leviathan's back.

Thor swung his hammer at the Chitauri crawling up the leviathan to its back, knocking them away from himself and the Hulk, who was busily ripping the aliens from his back and tossing them away. The Hulk roared and leapt onto an alien, crushing it beneath his weight then he ripped up a piece of the leviathan's armor and slammed it into the large creature.

The God of Thunder pivoted on his heel and slammed his hammer onto the piece of armor protruding from the leviathan, sending a strong bolt of lightning through the metal and into the creature. The leviathan screeched in agony as the lightning coursed through its body, stopping its heart and brain, and it fell from the sky. It crashed through the arched windows of Grand Central Station.

The people inside the train station screamed and ran away as fast as they could as the leviathan skidded through the station before coming to a complete halt, sparks of electricity dancing across the metal surrounding its face.

The Hulk grunted and snarled as he and Thor walked along the leviathan's back, green eyes flashing around in search of a threat. The green beast grunted again, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides for a moment before he lifted his left arm and slammed his fist in to the god standing at his side, sending him flying off the leviathan's back.

* * *

Piper tossed her head back and howled with delighted laughter after watching the Hulk and Thor kill one of the leviathans from the rooftop she'd been standing on. Purplish blood coated her body, the several spots of dried blood crusting the short, grayish fur into stiff spikes.

With a feral smile, the female mutant leapt from the rooftop and onto a passing leviathan, her claws digging into the metal plating with a screech. Still laughing with maniacal glee, Piper began to agilely scale the leviathan's side to its back, attacking any bipedal Chitauri she came across as she moved.

Tightly coiled muscles tensing with eager anticipation, Piper pulled herself onto the leviathan's back and charged towards its head. She leapt onto an approaching biped alien and knocked it onto its back as her maw opened wide before she sank her fangs deep into the alien's neck, crushing its throat.

The Chitauri screeched and scrabbled at her back and sides feebly before its hands stilled and fell limply at its sides, its chest shuddering once before stilling. Her chest thrumming with the force of her growl, Piper jerked her head up and snarled, purplish blood and saliva dripping from her mouth with bits of the alien's flesh locked between her teeth. She straightened and continued towards the leviathan's head, ripping into the bipedal Chitauri that tried to stop her with frenzied abandon.

Her fur stained dark and dripping with fresh alien blood and other fluids, Piper tossed the intestines speared on her claws away from her and swung down onto the leviathan's face. She smiled cruelly when she saw its small, dark eye just before she shoved her entire arm into the socket, popping the eyeball like a ripe grape. She ripped her arm free with a sickening squelch, ripping the orb from the socket completely before shaking it off her claws and sinking her hand back into the empty socket.

The leviathan let out a harsh, piercing cry of pain and shook its head in an attempt to dislodge the feral female mutant, but Piper merely dug her claws deeper into the creature's eye socket, prying its brain matter from its skull with homicidal glee.

When the leviathan stopped making noise and began to careen towards the street, Piper shoved herself away from the dying alien. She flipped through the air and landed on the street in a crouch, vermillion eyes gleaming with bloodlust as the leviathan crashed to the ground behind her. She straightened and spread her arms out, roaring a challenge at the bipedal Chitauri that survived the leviathan's death and had surrounded her. They began to fire their weapons at her, but the wounds healed as soon as they were inflicted, skin knitting together before it was recovered in grayish fur. Piper tore through the aliens violently, her heart racing and blood rushing through her veins as euphoria filled her at their dying shrieks of agony.

She stood in amid the shredded alien bodies, panting heavily as purplish blood dripped down her body and pooled at her arched feet. Throwing the pulsing organ she held in her hand, she tossed her head back and thunderous roar spilled from her mouth then she whirled around, loping down the street in search of either more prey or one of her allies.

* * *

Natasha swerved the alien craft she was piloting, avoiding the blue energy blast that almost took out her head. She glanced over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes when she saw a familiar horned helmet piloting another spacecraft.

"Oh, you." She muttered derisively before facing forward again, swerving to avoid more blasts, "Hawkeye!"

_"Nat, what are you doing?"_ Clint demanded in shock as he watched his fellow agent from the rooftop.

"A little help?" The redhead retorted as she dodged another energy blast from Loki.

On the rooftop, Clint squeezed the targeting system on his bow before drawing the sting back, lining up the shot with practiced ease.

A smirk appeared on his face as he sighted Loki's head, "I got him."

He released the arrow and watched with satisfaction as it soared through the air towards the god. His eyes narrowed slightly when Loki got the arrow and glanced over him with a condescending smirk. Clint's own smirk didn't falter as the arrowhead beeped once before it exploded, sending Loki flying from his spacecraft and onto the to balcony of Stark Tower.

Natasha pursed her lips before she yanked her blades out of the Chitauri's back and backflipped off the spacecraft. She flipped through the air and grunted when she hit the roof of Stark Tower, rolling several paces across the gravel before coming to a stop in a crouch.

* * *

Loki snarled silently as he pushed himself to his knees and shook his hair from his face, blue eyes blazing with fury that quickly changed to shock when the Hulk appeared in front of him with a roar before slamming him through an unbroken window and into the tower.

The God of Mischief grunted as his back connected with the stone wall before he hit the marble floor on his stomach. The Hulk growled and slammed his fists on the floor then stomped forward as the god began to get to his feet.

_**"Enough!" **_Loki screamed furiously, stopping the Hulk in his tracks with a vaguely perplexed expression, "You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a_ god_ you dull creature! And I will not be bullied by-_Ack!_"

The Hulk snarled and lunged forward, grapping irritating god by the ankles and slamming him into the marble floor several times. The rage monster paused and held the god up for a moment before slamming him into the floor a few more times, letting his ankles go when he was finished.

"Puny god." The Hulk grunted with derision in a deep baritone as he glared down at the so-called god lying at his feet.

A raspy, wheezing sound grabbed the Hulk attention and he turned with a snarl, green eyes narrowing at the furry female mutant standing in front of the shattered windows. Piper smiled the rage monster as she sauntered towards the body-shaped crater Loki was sprawled out in. She crouched beside the prone God of Mischief, her smile widening when fear filled his green eyes.

"Looks like I missed out on the fun." The female mutant chuckled in a rough, gravelly voice and she flicked the god's forehead with a claw, smiling cruelly at his whimper of pain.

Piper straightened and sashayed towards the Hulk, who was watching her closely. She smiled sweetly and ducked under one of his massive arms, rubbing her cheek against his chest in a very feline way as a purr thrummed through her chest. The Hulk grunted and placed on massive hand on the top of her head, thick fingers tangling in her mane of silvery-gray hair for a moment before he removed his hand from the blood-caked strands. She rubbed her cheek against his broad chest one more time before loping towards the shattered window and leaping out, the Hulk following her a moment later.

Loki wheezed in agony in his crater after the two beasts left, his whole body unable to move after the brutal beating it had taken.

* * *

Natasha stared at the device with concealed dismay and irritation as she approached it.

"The scepter..."

The redhead paused and looked over at where Dr. Selvig was lying on the ground near the edge of the roof, "Doctor."

Dr. Selvig looked at her then back over the edge of the roof, "Loki's scepter. The energy. The Tesseract can't fight it, but you can't protect against yourself."

"It's not your fault." Natasha said as she walked over to the older man and crouched beside him, reaching one hand out to him, "You didn't know what you were doing."

"Actually, I think I did." Dr. Selvig replied quietly as he looked at the redhead, "I built in a safety to cut their power source."

"Loki's scepter."

"It may be able to close the portal." Dr. Selvig stated tiredly and he looked down at the scepter resting innocently on the balcony several yards below him, "And I'm looking right at it."

* * *

Thor grunted as he swung his hammer at two of the Chitauri knocking them off the back of their spacecraft, before it swerved into the face of a leviathan that had just burst from a building which knocked Thor off the aircraft and to the street below.

Tony flew alongside the leviathan and pointed his lasers at it, attempting to pierce the metal plating it was armored in.

_"Sir, we will lose power before we penetrate the shell." _JARVIS stated.

Tony pursed his lips, flying ahead of the leviathan then around a building until he was flying towards the alien.

"JARVIS, you ever hear the tale of Jonah?" Tony asked with a small cringe as an idea came to him.

_"I wouldn't consider him a role model."_

Tony smirked slightly then activated the missiles on the Mark VII's knees as he flew into the leviathan's open maw. He yelled and grunted as he flew threw the leviathan's inners, launching the missiles as he went until he exploded out of the alien's other end. The billionaire groaned as he spiraled out of control and hit the street, slamming into an abandoned taxi before coming to a complete stop on his stomach.

Tony shook his head slightly, his head's-up-display flickered, as he pushed himself to his feet with a small grunt. A wordless shout was ripped from his throat as first one, then another energy blast struck him in the chest, knocking him off his feet. The bipedal Chitauri stalked towards the prone billionaire with their weapons raised.

* * *

A Chitauri dropped down from a passing aircraft and Clint whirled around, firing an arrow into the alien's head. He went to grab another arrow from his quiver just as another alien climbed onto the roof, but his hand grasped open air. Thinking quickly, the archer swung his bow like a bat and struck the Chitauri's head twice before kicking it off the roof.

He whirled around and his eyes widened when he saw several of the Chitauri aircrafts flying towards him. Clint ripped his last arrow from the dead alien's head and slipped it back into the quiver, quickly clicking the button until the right arrowhead attacked to the shaft.

The Chitauri began shooting at him and he ran towards the ledge of the roof, pulling the arrow from his quiver and leaping off just as it exploded behind him. Clint twisted in midair and notched the arrow before firing it an intact part of the building. The arrow latched on to the stone wall of the building like a grappling hook and Clint swung towards a large window, crashing through it with a grunt as he landed on the hard floor on his back.

* * *

The Hulk snarled as he landed on the roof of a short building, slamming two of the aliens into the ground and crushing their skulls beneath his massive fists. Piper leapt over his crouched form and onto another Chitauri, sinking her large fangs into its throat while the Hulk kicked another that had come up behind her. The female mutant stumbled back when an energy blast struck her shoulder, baring her fangs at the alien spacecrafts that were surrounding her and the Hulk.

The green rage monster roared as a blast skidded across his broad shoulders and he turned to face squad of Chitauri hovering above him and Piper. He roared again as they all began firing at once and he raised his arm to shield his face. Beside him, Piper shrieked in pain and fury as her body jerked with each blast that struck her, the wounds appearing too fast for her healing ability to fix with its usual speed. The Hulk snarled and grabbed the female, hunching his broad shoulders and curling around her smaller frame as the aliens continued to fire on them. Piper grasped his shoulders tightly and tucked her head against his chest, her breath coming in quick pants as the burns and lesions decorating her body slowly knitted together.

* * *

_"Stark, do you hear me? You have a missile heading straight for the city." _

Tony gritted his teeth slightly as Fury's voice filled his helmet, his HUD flickering as the aliens surrounding him attacked him with their spears. He tried pushing himself up and grunted when a spear hit his helmeted head even as he answered Fury.

"How long?" The billionaire asked as he tried to hit the Chitauri attacking him with his repulsors, but his targeting system was flickering.

_"Three minutes, max."_ Fury replied quickly, _"The payload will wipe out Midtown."_

"JARVIS, put everything we got in the thrusters."

_"I just did."_

Tony gritted his teeth and pushed himself onto one knee, blasting the aliens that got to close. One jumped onto his back and he surged upright, tossing the Chitauri away from him before he took off into the sky.

* * *

Steve cried out in surprise and some pain as an energy blast struck him in the stomach, knocking his feet out from under him and he hit the unforgiving street on a stomach with a groan.

Thor whirled around and snarled, deflecting the energy blasts from several of the Chitauri with Mjolnir while the captain pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. The God of Thunder clenched his jaw and swung his hammer, slamming it into a car and sending it flying into the advancing Chitauri with a crash. He spun around again and threw his hammer in the other direction, then he walked over to where Steve was kneeling on the ground with his head bowed slightly.

He held his hand out to the super soldier and Steve grasped his arm, allowing the god to pull him to his feet.

"Are you ready for another bout?" Thor asked in his booming voice, observing the wound on the captain's side.

"What," Steve quipped through his panting as he looked around, "Are you getting sleepy?"

Thor smirked slightly at the other blonde man and held his hand out, Mjolnir flying into his waiting grasp.

* * *

Natasha quickly climbed back onto the roof with Loki's scepter in hand, casting an inquisitive look at Dr. Selvig as he adjusted something on his computer.

The astrophysicist pointed at the device with one hand, "Right at the crown!"

The redhead nodded and clenched her jaw as she pointed the tip of the scepter at the device, gritting her teeth as the force-field surrounding it resisted for a moment before giving way.

"I can close it." She called out into her earpiece as she steadily pushed the scepter towards the crown, "Can anybody copy?"

* * *

_"I can shut the portal down."_

Steve's eyes widened at Natasha's words and he touched his ear piece, "Do it!"

_"No, wait!" _

Steve looked up at the sky in disbelief at Tony's voice, "Stark, those things are still coming!"

* * *

"I've got a nuke coming in." Tony replied as he flew towards the bridge, his HUD system locking onto incoming missile, "It's gonna blow in less than a minute." He flew under the bridge then up towards the missile as it flew over head, "And I know just were to put it."

The billionaire flew under the missile and grasped it, directing it towards his tower.

_"Stark,"_ Steve's voice filled his helmet, surprising soft, _"You know that's a one-way trip."_

Tony ignored the captain's words as he addressed his A.I., "Save the rest for the turn, J."

_"Sir, shall I try Miss Potts?"_

Tony hesitated and swallowed thickly as Pepper's picture showed up on his HUD before he answered, "Might as well."

He directed the missile through the streets towards his tower as JARVIS contacted Pepper's cellphone through his com-link, Thor and Steve looking up as he flew over their heads.

* * *

The Hulk slowly pushed himself up, rubble falling off his broad shoulders and back with his movement. Piper uncurled herself and peered out from under him, the two beasts watching as Iron Man blurred passed with the nuke.

* * *

Tony grunted with exertion as he pushed the missile upright at an angle that followed the slope of his tower until he flew passed the roof, where Natasha and Dr. Selvig watched him with the device. He propelled himself upward and flew through the portal, straight in the dark expanse of space.

The billionaire swallowed thickly again as he continued to direct the missile towards the large ship, his suit flicking until the only thing keeping him moving was the missile's own momentum.

_"Sir..." _JARVIS trailed off as the HUD flickered before dying as the suit powered down.

Tony gasped quietly as he let go of the missile, watching as it struck the massive spacecraft that the Chitauri were pouring out of as he fell back towards the portal. He watched as it exploded in a burst of red and yellow fire before he let his eyes drift shut.

* * *

Thor and Steve watched in disbelief as the Chitauri that were approaching them fell limply to the ground, the leviathans that remained crashing to the ground or onto buildings. Steve quickly looked up at the portal and stared at the black hole intently, the flicker of hope burning in his chest dimming with each second that passed and Tony didn't appear.

* * *

Back on the tower's roof, Natasha stared at the portal with an almost desperate expression on her bruised face.

"Come on, Stark."

* * *

Steve swallowed thickly as the muffled sound of an explosion reached his ears and a ball of red appeared amidst the dark blue of the portal. He glanced at Thor, who looked back at him with an expression of hesitancy when Tony still had not appeared.

Swallowing thickly again, the captain touched his earpiece, "Close it."

* * *

Natasha stared at the portal for another moment before shoving the tip of Loki's scepter into the device's crown, causing it the sputter and the blue energy surrounding it to flicker. The beam of light completely disappeared and with a sound like thunder, the portal imploding in on itself as it closed.

The redhead looked up at the closing portal and relief filled her when she saw a familiar gold and red suit falling through the small hole just before the portal closed completely.

* * *

"Son of a gun." Steve muttered in amazement as he watched Iron Man fall from the portal moments before it shut completely.

HIs brow furrowed in confusion and trepidation when he saw that Tony didn't seem to be flying and wasn't slowing down his descent.

"He's not slowing down!" Thor exclaimed and he began to swing his hammer, preparing to fly to the metal man's aid.

A piercing caterwaul wrenched through the air and the two men watched in stunned disbelief as the Hulk suddenly flew through the air and caught Tony's falling form. The green beast slammed into a building and clutched at it with his massive hands, tearing chunks out of it as he tried to slow his descent to the ground while cradling Tony's suited form in one arm.

Steve and Thor jumped slightly as Piper's seven-foot form landed in a crouch beside them, the short fur covering her body crusted with dry Chitauri blood just as the Hulk pushed off the building and slammed into an abandoned car, skidding across the street on his back for several yards before coming to a complete stop.

Piper loped towards the Hulk before either of the other two men could move, reaching the rage monster's side just as he grunted and tossed Tony's limp form from his body. The feral female grasped the shoulder of the Iron Man suit and turned Tony onto his back, crouching over him while the Hulk hovered behind her.

"Is he breathing?" Steve asked hurriedly as he dropped down on his knees on Tony's other side while Thor kneeled by the billionaire's head.

Thor reached out and ripped the gold faceplate from the mask, tossing it carelessly away from him. Steve leaned forward, his ear hovering over the billionaire's mouth and nose before he sat back with a distressed expression. Piper placed her hand on the white circle, her feline-human face furrowing in concentration before it morphed into something again to dismay when it didn't light up and a whine escaped her throat as she sat back on her haunches.

She snarled suddenly and slammed her fist against the suit's chest just as the Hulk leaned forward and roared right in Tony's ear, the sound echoing through the surprisingly quiet city. Tony gasped and stared wide-eyed at the four faces peering down at him; two human, one a stunning blend of human and feline, and the other green.

The Hulk reared back and roared again, pounding on his chest in a triumphant manner. Piper hissed at him for roaring in her ear again, swatting at his legs with one hand, but the large male merely rumbled at her annoyance before looking back at Iron Man.

"What the hell?" Tony demanded sharply, his dark brown eyes flickering from face to face as he tried not to move his body to much, "What just happened? _Please_ tell me nobody kissed me."

Piper scoffed sarcastically and shook her mane of hair back with a haughty toss of her head as her eyes went from red to gunmetal gray, "You wish, pretty boy."

Tony lifted his head slightly to look at her and made a strangled that might have been laughter when she flashed her three-inch canines at him and licked her lips, "Whatever, Pippi, you know you want a piece of this."

"To eat maybe."

Thor smirked at the exchange while Steve chuckled quietly and sat back on his heels as he ran a hand through his sweaty hair and looked around in disbelief.

"We won."

Piper groaned quietly and shifted into a cross-legged position, leaning back against the Hulk's thick leg as exhaustion filled her. Tony sighed softly at the captain's words and closed his eyes, letting his head fall back with small clang.

"Alright, yay!" The billionaire cheered half-heartedly, opening his eyes and raising his fist slightly before letting it fall back with a thump, "Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just...not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day." He looked over the Hulk, who was standing almost protectively over the others, "Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

Piper laughed slightly and leaned her head back against the Hulk's knee, closing her eyes halfway. The Hulk grunted quietly and placed one hand on the female mutant's head, thick fingers tangling in the blood-crusted strands.

"We're not finished yet." Thor said grimly as he looked at the ruined Stark Tower with an stony expression and Steve glanced up at him.

"_Aw fuck."_

Tony groaned in wholehearted agreement at Piper's vehement exclamation before he sighed, "And then shawarma after."

* * *

**Author's Note: ...Ohmigawd, this chapter is just...dksdkfaskdjhgsakjhfds! I freaking love it! I love it more than the last chapter, it's just so, so...I don't know. I'm seriously thinking it's my _Magnum Opus_ right now, I'm not sure how I'm gonna top it. Anyhooties, I'm so sorry for the wait, I wanted to buy the Avengers movie before I posted this chapter because I wanted to write the Battle of Manhattan in greater detail than I did in the original version of the story, which I hope I succeeded in doing. I actually had to break this chapter up into two parts because of how long it was getting. Seriously this chapter alone is over 9k words, excluding the author's note here. **

**Also on a completely different note, I saw Thor: The Dark World last weekend and holy guacamole, if you have not seen it yet, go see it. Now. I mean right now, stop reading this stupid author's note and go! It was freaking amazing! Although, I would advise bringing tissues, but that's all I'm saying on the matter. So onto the special thanks and mentions!**

**PS - Before I forget, y'all should totally check out the links to the two pictures of Piper I found/photo-shopped on GIMP on my profile. The first one I found the perfect picture, altered slightly to look a little more like Piper, then I took that picture and found an amazing headshot of a female white lioness and merged the two in GIMP, so I'm a ridiculously proud of that one.**

**Special THANKS to everyone that faved and/or alerted! You guys are the sauciest of the awesome-sauces!**

**SPECIAL MENTIONS!**

**Laveycee: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the battle scene in the last chapter! I've actually gotten a helluva lot better at writing fight scenes since I started writing my AtLA story. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Break This Spell: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the last chapter and that you didn't think Piper's other half was Mary Sue-ish. I guess I was a little worried readers might think she was becoming all powerful or something. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**LadyAmazon: **Haha, thanks, I'm glad you liked all the wittiness in the last chapter! I was feeling particularly clever that day. XD Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Kit-cat99: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked Piper's freak out! I hope you like this chapter too!

**Molly Grace 16: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Ah, yes, Piper's alter ego is definitely more intelligent that her previous incarnation. Actually, now that I've done a little bit of research, she's more like a second personality. Still Piper, but at the same time, she's not, if that makes _any _sense at all. Anyhooties, I hope you liked her alien butt kicking skills in this chapter!

**Protagonist of Life: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the battle in the last chapter! Oh my God, Thor 2 was freaking amazing, I hope you get to see it soon! Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Jillyjillyfairfax: **One catnip joke right at the beginning just for you, I hope you liked it! I also hope you liked Piper's (though it was minor) inclusion in Loki and the Hulk's little scene. Buahahaha, oh, I'm so gonna find a way to incorporate a "what's new pussycat" joke into the story now, I actually think I have the perfect idea for it too! Now onto your review questions! I'll start with the second one since the first one was pretty much answered.**  
_RQ2) _**_Hmm, when I first read your question, my mind immediately when to something really hardcore, with lots of drums and bass, but then I realized music like that would reek havoc on Piper's sensitive ears. After that epiphany I really started to give it some thought and then BAM! I realized that Piper would most likely listen to jazz/soul/blues music. Music like Norah Jones, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, stuff like that.**  
RG3) **Piper is an only child, but her mother was not, so there are some cousins/second-cousins floating around that might make an appearance in later chapters._

**ShikaKibaShinoGal: **Thanks, I'm glad you like the story so far! There will be more Bruce/Piper interactions as well as Hulk/Other Piper interactions in later chapters. Ah, the reason Hulk saved her in the last chapter, well, I don't even think he knows. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Jesskalynn4: **I hope you like this chapter!

**Elivira: **Thanks, I'm glad you like Piper's character! I'm super happy that I've managed to due her original concept justice in this version of her story, since my firs attempt was pretty much a train wreck. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Dhalmi93: **Thanks, I hope you like this chapter!

**Teddy bear 007: **Haha, I hope you like this chapter!

**Stinker126: **Haha, I'm glad you liked the past few chapters and I hope you like this one too!

**Lady Syndra: **I hope you like this chapter!

**SamanthaJane13: **Hope you like this chapter!


	8. Chapter 8: See Ya Around, Doc

Loki groaned silently as he pulled himself up out of the crater and crawled his way towards the short set of steps that led to the bar, using them to pull his battered body into a sitting position. A muffled snicker came from behind him and the God of Mischief froze, staring at his bruised and cut hands with slightly wide eyes.

Turning slowly, Loki stared at the arrow aimed at his face by Hawkeye, the other Avengers standing on either side of the archer's kneeling form. Loki glanced at the back of the group where the green beast and the female creature stood across from each other, their gazes riveted to his form. The Hulk grunted and exhaled heavily through his nose while the twin pads of Piper's upper lip split with her snarl, vermillion eyes glowering at him from her inhuman face.

"If it's all the same to," Loki quipped warily, looking at Tony as he shifted his bruised body to face the Avengers fully and smirk wryly, "I'll have that drink now."

The Hulk and Piper growled in unison, the female mutant flashing her fangs at the god in an unfriendly smile. Stone faced, Thor stepped forward, an intricately made, silver muzzle appearing in his hand as he approached his battered brother. The God of Thunder kneeled beside Loki, who didn't protest as Thor fitted the muzzle over his mouth, manacles appearing on the God of Mischief's wrists once the muzzle's straps clicked closed.

* * *

The seven heroes sat quietly around the two tables they had pushed together in the shawarma joint Tony had found earlier, which was, surprisingly, mostly intact as far as some of the establishments on the block went. Two of the staff were busy attempting to clean up the damage behind the group, quietly deciding to ignore the seven sitting silently in the middle of the small restaurant after they had been served.

Steve sat at one end of the joined tables with his elbow on the tabletop and his cheek resting against his fist. He chewed his shawarma slowly, his blue eyes drifting shut every few minutes before he blinked them open again, exhaustion settling over his slumped shoulders as he ate and dozed slightly.

Natasha sat to the exhausted captain's right with her chair turned slightly towards Clint, who sat on her other side. She ate slowly, savoring each bite of shawarma while trying to keep her own eyes open, occasionally glancing over at the archer beside her before looking back at her food.

Clint shifted slightly in his chair, subtly nudging the redheaded agent's back with the foot he had propped up behind her on her chair. He caught her eye when she glanced at him again and he inclined his head subtly to her before scooping up some of the shawarma in his food basket with his pita bread and taking a large bite, a contented expression appearing on his face as he chewed.

Thor sat to Steve's left and across from Natasha, his blonde hair hanging in straggle strands in front of his weary face. He picked up the Midgardian food he had been handed by the Man of Iron and took a cautious bite. He chewed contemplatively before he nodded decisively to himself and took a hearty bite of the strange, but delicious Midgardian cuisine known as 'shawarma', crumbs falling all over the table as he chewed vigorously.

Beside the God of Thunder and across from Clint, Tony leaned back in his chair and chewed his own mouthful while observing his other companions. He picked up a napkin from beside his food basket and wiped the grease from his fingers, his eyes straying towards Bruce and Piper, who sat between him and Clint, sharing the space at the other end of the table across from Steve. The billionaire caught Bruce's eye and quirked a brow inquisitively, as if asking the other genius how the food was.

Bruce nodded his head slightly and took another bite of his pita bread, mopping up some of the juice and sauce at the bottom of his basket as he chewed. Beside him, Piper suddenly slumped to the side and leaned against him, her food basket empty in her lap. Out of all of the extraordinary people sitting together as a team at the table, the gray-haired woman had attacked her food the most viciously, devouring as it if she hadn't eaten in weeks. She'd even stolen a few pieces of Tony's when he wasn't looking, much to Bruce's private amusement.

The doctor looked down at the female mutant's head resting against his shoulder, the near silent snores coming from her causing him to smile slightly. After they had secured Loki, both he and Piper had reverted to their smaller, human selves, once again completely nude, much to Bruce's embarrassment and Tony's amusement. The billionaire had been kind enough to lend Bruce some of his own clothes while Piper received a bright yellow sundress that belonged to the billionaire's live-in girlfriend, Pepper Potts. Needless to say, Piper had been highly unamused at the clothing choice and had half-heartedly threatened Tony even as she pulled the dress on after washing the alien blood from her skin and hair, far more interested in getting something to eat at that moment then argue about wearing a ridiculous dress.

Bruce glanced away from the gray-haired woman and caught Tony's eye again, flushing slightly at the knowing look his fellow genius was giving him. Clearing his throat silently, Bruce looked down at his food and took another bite, trying to ignore the warmth being emitted from the woman beside him and the strange sensation of her soft hair tickling his neck.

Tony smirked to himself and went back to his own shawarma, contented to just let the companionable silence surround the group of allies after their extremely harrowing day. He grill the doctor about his rather strange relationship with the female mutant later, when she was way out of hearing range.

* * *

_"Despite the devastation of what has been confirmed as an extraterrestrial attack, the extraordinary heroics of the group known as the Avengers has been to many a cause not only for comfort, but for celebration..."_

_"It's just really great knowing they're out there. That someone is watching over us."_

_"I love you, Thor!"_

_And these guys were like _pew-pew _and then the air goes _bwoosh! _And this green guy walks up and goes _raaaaugggh!_ And then the lion-lady was like _grrraaaaarrr! _It was **awesome**!__"_

_"I don't know. I don't exactly feel safer with those things out there."_

_"It just seems like that there's a lot they're not telling us."_

_"Superheroes in New York? _Psh_, give me a break."_

_"These so-called 'heroes' have to be held responsible for the destruction done to this city. This was there fight. Where are they now?"_

_"Tough questions are being asked about the Avengers themselves. They're sudden appearance and equally as sudden disappearance."_

_"What, this is all somehow there fault? Captain America saved _my_ life. Wherever he is, and wherever any of them are, I would just...I would want to say _thank you_."_

Fury folded his hands behind his back as he stood inside the World Security Council meeting room on the Helicarrier, his one eye focused, not on the four large screens with the four Council members, but on the smaller screens below the larger ones as they played various news feeds from around the world.

_"Where are the Avengers?" _One of the Council members asked in a thick accent.

"I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts." Fury replied matter-of-factly as he crossed his arms over his chest, daring any of the Council members to object, "I'd say they've earned a leave of absence."

_"And the Tesseract?" _The only Councilwoman questioned coolly.

"The Tesseract is where it belongs. Out of our reach."

_"That's not your call."_

Fury looked at the other Councilman with a dry, but slightly smug, expression, "I didn't make it. I just didn't argue with the god that did."

_"So, you let him take it and the war criminal, Loki, who should be answering for his crime."_

Fury smirked, "Oh, I think he will be."

_"I don't think you understand what you've started." _The councilwoman intoned coldly, _"Letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous."_

"They surely are, and the whole world knows it." Fury replied nonchalantly then his tone hardened, "_Every_ world knows it."

_"Was that the point of all this?" _One of the councilmen demanded, _"A statement."_

The S.H.I.E.L.D. director shrugged slightly and smirked, "A promise."

The Council members stared at him silently for a moment before their screens went dark and Fury turned away, exiting the meeting room and heading back towards the bridge.

* * *

Piper hopped out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. issue car and stretched languidly as Bruce, Natasha, and Clint stepped out of the vehicle a few moments after her. She ran a clawed hand through her, for once, untangled gray hair before she leapt over the back of the vehicle, landing beside Bruce while Clint walked around the front of car to stand beside Natasha on the passenger side.

Bruce offered the gray-haired woman standing beside him a small smile, which she surprisingly returned with a broad grin before the four made their towards Bethesda Terrace in Central Park where Thor and Loki would be using the Tesseract to return to Asgard. Tony approached the two gods from the other side as the group met in the middle of the terrace that over looked The Lake, a silver briefcase in hand.

Dr. Selvig removed the specially designed case built for the Tesseract from the back of the S.H.I.E.L.D. van and walked over to Tony, who placed the silver briefcase on the ground and opened it before stepping away. Bruce walked up to the case and removed the Tesseract from it with the special tongs, placing the glowing Cube carefully into the transporter that Dr. Selvig held open for him while Steve observed from the side with an unreadable expression on his face.

The astrophysicist handed the transporter to Thor, who smiled at the other man and clapped him carefully on the shoulder. Dr. Selvig smiled weakly back at the god and patted the large hand on his shoulder before stepping away.

Piper crossed her arms under her breasts and gave the muzzled God of Mischief a coy, fang-baring smile when he caught her eye. Her smile widened with wicked delight when he flinched slightly and looked away from her quickly. Natasha smirked at the exchange then she leaned towards the archer and whispered something to him, causing him to snicker quietly, his lips twisting into a smirk of his own.

Bruce smiled slightly at the gray-haired woman as he walked over to her and Tony, standing in between the two. The group formed a loose circle around the two gods and watched as Thor held the other end of the Tesseract's container out to his brother. Loki hesitated a moment, glancing at the six extraordinary people surrounding him and Thor then he grasped the other end of the container, glaring down at the blue cube to avoid looking at Thor's face. The God of Thunder looked away from his brother and nodded in farewell to his allies then the he twisted the container handle he held and the two gods disappeared into the sky in a flash of blue light.

* * *

"You sure you don't want to come to Stark Tower?" Bruce questioned self-consciously, his hands fidgeting with nervous energy as he looked at the gray-haired woman standing in front of him.

Piper smiled at him with a surprising amount of sincerity, "Trust me, Doc, there's nothing I want to do more, but I have to get some things squared away with Fury first." She snickered and nodded towards the red sports car Tony was standing next to with Steve, "Besides, I don't think I'd be able to fit into that thing with both of you anyway."

"Uh, yeah. You're probably right about that." Bruce chuckled wryly then he licked his lips and looked at the female mutant with an almost nervous expression, "After you talk to Fury..."

"I'll stop by." Piper said then she reached out and gently touched his cheek with a clawed hand, laughing slightly when he jumped and looked at her with wide brown eyes, "Take care of yourself, yeah?"

"I-uh, s-sure."

Piper smiled again then surprised them both when she leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth, "I'll see you around, Bruce."

Bruce blinked in surprise and watched with a stupefied expression as the gray-haired woman sauntered towards the S.H.I.E.L.D. car waiting for her. He felt a flush creep up his neck to his face when she paused before getting into the backseat of the car to glance over her shoulder and wink at him, her gunmetal gray eyes bright with mischief and amusement.

Natasha suddenly appeared in front of him, cutting off his view of Piper slipping into the small car and closing the door behind her. The redhead quirked a brow at him as she held out a luggage bag, the corner of her mouth twitching upward slightly. Bruce cleared his throat awkwardly and avoided looking her in the eye as he took the bag from her with a small, sheepish smile. Natasha patted his shoulder once before walking over to the car Piper had just got into and where Clint was waiting for her by the driver's side door.

Bruce quickly walked over to where Tony was standing by his sports car, trying to ignore the knowing look on the billionaire's face as he sat in the passenger seat with his bag on is lap.

"So what'd Pippi say? Is she gonna come to Stark Tower?" Tony asked as he climbed into the driver's seat.

The doctor fidgeted with the bag's straps and cleared his throat, "Uh, yeah, she'll be there."

Tony smirked at the faint blush on the other man's cheeks and started the car, driving back towards Stark Tower, _'Looks like I get to play matchmaker.'_

* * *

"Sir, how does it work now?" Agent Hill asked curiously as she and Fury walked slowly towards the large bay of windows at the front of the bridge, "They've gone their separate ways. Some, pretty extremely far. If we get into a situation like this again, what happens then?"

"They'll come back." Fury replied matter-of-factly as he stepped on the observation post at the front of the bridge, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Are you really sure about that?"

"I am."

Agent Hill gave him a scrutinizing look, "Why?"

The director stared out at the clouds for a moment before glancing over his right shoulder at the dark-haired woman, "Because we'll need them too."

Maria stared at her superior for a moment then nodded in acceptance and understanding. She turned away and walked back down the walkway towards the helm, taking the file another agent handed her. Fury turned back to look at the sky and sighed quietly. the tension in his shoulders relaxing ever so slightly.

* * *

**Author's Note: Alright, short chapter is, well, short. Sorry about that, but it seemed like the perfect place to cut it off. Next chapter will pretty much be non-canon stuff from now on. Lots of Piper/Different Avengers interactions, but mostly Piper/Bruce (romance-ish) and Piper/Tony (friendship). I just hope I can get everyone's personality down, especially Bruce and Tony's. Anyhooties, the next chapter will most likely kick off with Piper talking to Fury and all that good stuff, soooo I hope y'all enjoyed the Avengers Movie Arc part of this story! **

**PS - One quick question, I have some ideas for Piper's codename, but I'm kinda stuck on which one would be the best since 'Creature' isn't really as appropriate for her as it was in the original. I came up two which are, 'Sekhmet' after the Egyptian Goddess of war known for her lion head and 'Sphinx' the Egyptian/Greek guardians known for their lion bodies and human faces (usually female in Greek mythology and male in Egyptian). Personally, I'm rather fond of 'Sphinx' but I am open to suggestions, if y'all have any. **

**Special THANKS to everyone that faved and/or alerted! You guys are freaking awesome-sauce!**

**SPECIAL MENTIONS!**

**Sadly not hot: **Thanks, I'm glad you like the story so far! I hope you like this chapter!

**Protagonist of Life: **Haha, thanks, I'm glad you think the story is awesome! I only hope you like this chapter too!

**Jesskalynn4: **More Bruce and Piper action will be coming up in the future along with some Piper/Tony friendship-sibling bonding type thing.

**LadyAmazon: **To be completely honest, I actually surprise myself with how detailed the last chapter was. I'm not usually very good a doing descriptive stuff. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Kit-cat99: **I know right! That's like one of the best freaking parts of the movie, along with the Hulk beating the crap outta Loki, and Tony knocking Thor off screen in that one scene. Absolutely hilarious. Ah, I get what you mean about Jane, she did seem kinda, I dunno, _blah_, in the movie. I really wish that there had been more Darcy, because she's such a funny character. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Stinker196: **Haha, thanks, I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Haha, Loki kept me laughing throughout most of Thor 2, he was just so diabolically mischievous and witty throughout the whole thing, it was great. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Teddy bear 007: **Thanks! I hope you like this chapter!

**Newbeth: **Aw, thanks, I'm glad you like Piper! She's a pretty awesome character to write, especially after all the revisions I made to her since the original story. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Dhalmi93: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the Hulk's and Piper's interactions in the last chapter! I hope you like this chapter too!

**Molly Grace 16: **Yay, I'm super happy you though the last chapter was eight kinds of amazing! I'm actually still trying to pick out a Marvel villain to play the antagonist in the second arc of the story, that is if I don't just decide to make up one myself. Thankfully, I already know I want the second arc to mostly focus on Bruce and Piper and how they both slowly realize that they kinda balance each other out and are quite a compatible pair. Of course, there's gonna be some Science Bros going on, because that friendship is too much fun _not_ to write about, I just hope I do it justice. Also I totally agree with you on Thor 2, while I still like the first one marginally better, I did enjoy how much Loki there was in the second. Anyhooties, sorry for the super long reply, I'm done rambling now so I hope you like this chapter!


	9. Chapter 9: It Was An Accident, Sort Of

Piper slipped into the chair at the head of the arrow-shaped table on the bridge and rested her hands demurely in her lap as she stared at Director Fury's back, waiting with slight impatience for him to acknowledge her presence. Natasha and Clint took a seat at the table on either side of her, the archer leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest while the redheaded assassin leaned forward and rested her arms on the table.

Though both appeared to be relaxed, Piper knew that both were prepared to put a bullet in her head at Fury's word or if it became necessary to restrain her. Her patience wearing thin, Piper heaved an exasperated sigh and slapped her hands on the table, grabbing Natasha's and Clint's attention. Fury glanced over his right shoulder at the woman, dark brow raising ever so slightly.

"Alright, lets get this over with." The female mutant drawled as she flipped her arms over and presented her wrists to the S.H.I.E.L.D. director, "I know you got a pair of cuffs in that coat of yours somewhere, Nicky, so hurry up will you? I won't even scratch your eye out this time around."

Fury turned around slowly and approached the end of the table with his hands clasped behind his back, "What makes you think I'm going to cuff you?"

"_Puh-lease_, Nicky. I bashed one of your agent's head into a metal wall and then broke into Loki's cell." Piper replied drily, rolling her gunmetal gray eyes in exasperation, "I promised I would be on my best behavior and _that_ is definitely classified as misbehavior." She shook her upturned hands at him, "So, come on, get it over with. If I'm gonna go back to my cage, I'd like to get there before the sun sets."

Natasha and Clint glanced at each other, their perplexed expression mirrored in the other's eyes before they looked between their superior and the gray-haired woman.

"While your actions do give me the grounds to throw you back into prison, that's not what I had in mind when I called you back here." Fury stated impassively, his expression giving nothing away as he regarded Piper, "In fact, I have a proposition for you."

"Really?" Piper's brow furrowed in confusion and she sat back in her chair, folding her arms under her breasts, "I didn't think I was your type and I'm not really sure if that would be worth staying out of prison..."

Beside her, Clint sucked in a quiet breath, his expression reminiscent of someone that just sucked on a lemon and found the taste wanting. Piper snickered then bit her lip when Fury gave her a flat look of irritation. She smiled then mimed zipping her mouth shut and locking it, tossing the imaginary key over her shoulder.

"I'd like to offer you a job."

Piper straightened and uncrossed her arms, staring at Fury in disbelief before glancing at the two agents seated on either side of her then back at him.

"Say what now?"

Fury unclasped his hands from behind his back and rested them on the tabletop, leaning forward slightly as he did so.

"Your particular...skill set, would be an asset to the agency, Miss Lennart." Fury responded matter-of-factly, watching as Piper tensed her hands and curled her hands into fists on the tabletop, "You undisciplined, unpredictable, volatile, and can't be trusted to behave yourself in the outside world. This is your best and only option at real freedom."

The woman stared at him with a stony expression, her gunmetal gray eyes flashing crimson for only the briefest moment before she forcefully relaxed her tense posture.

"Quite the speech, Nicky." Piper quipped nonchalantly as she leaned back in her chair, seeming completely at ease, "How long have you been practicing it?"

Fury ignored the jab and stared at her with an unyielding expression, "This is a once in a lifetime offer, Lennart. Are you in or should I have your cell prepared?

The female mutant looked down at her hands, biting her lip thoughtfully before she glanced at the two assassins sitting on either side of her as she tapped her claws against the tabletop. For several minutes the only sound on the bridge was the busy agents below, the director and his two best assassins watching the gray-haired woman intently as she thought.

Piper looked up suddenly and met Fury's gaze head on, "I want to be able to go to Stark Tower."

Fury smirked slightly and crossed his arms as he inclined in his head, "After you finish a mandatory training period as well as a psych-eval."

"How long will that take?"

"How ever long it takes for me to trust that you won't go on a killing spree as soon as I let you loose on society."

Piper's face twisted into a distinctly feline expression of distaste and annoyance, her voice a slight growl, "Alright, fine, I'll join your little club."

The director nodded and gestured towards the two agents sitting quietly on either side of her, "Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton will be your handlers, they'll report your progress back to me."

"Fantastic." Piper muttered drily, scowling at the smirk on Fury's face.

Fury turned away from the table and walked back to the helm, "Dismissed."

"This way, Lennart." Natasha said impassively as she stood from her seat and gestured for the other woman to follow her out of the bridge, Clint following behind them.

_'This is gonna suck.'_

Piper thought to herself with a pout, her arms crossed petulantly over her chest as she followed the redheaded spy.

* * *

An ugly scowl marred Piper's expressive features, her brow furrowed and lips twisted in contempt as she glowered at the silver nameplate placed at eyelevel on the partially cracked open metal door.

_Katarina Johann, PhD.  
Clinical Psychologist _

"You can come inside, Ms. Lennart." A soft, feminine voice called out from behind the door, "I don't bite, I promise.

Piper rolled her eyes and shouldered the door open the rest of the way, walking into the room with her usual confident swagger, "No, but I _do_."

The woman sitting behind the sturdy, wooden oak desk smiled softly as she carefully placed the manila folder she'd been reading down on her desk, "I better be careful then, no? Please, take a seat."

The female mutant eyed the other woman with mild interest and annoyance as she sat down on one of the plush chairs placed in front of the desk, a small purr erupting from her throat as she sank into the comfortable seat. Piper shifted until she was in a comfortable, deceptively relaxed position and scrutinized the woman sitting across from her. Dr. Johann was probably in her early forties and had classically beautiful features with olive-toned skin and chest-length black hair that was streaked with gray at the temples. Faint laugh lines around her mouth and at the corner of her dark eyes gave her a sweet, motherly appearance that was only emphasized by the warm and compassionate air she projected.

Piper's eyes narrowed into tiny slits when her irritation seemed to subtly diminish and was replaced by a sense of calmness, as if she was being covered in a warm blanket. Anger and indignation surged up inside her, beating back the sense of calm and Piper's lips curled up into a smile sharp enough to cut at the surprised look on Dr. Johann's face, while her eyes flashed crimson.

"Keep screwing with my emotions, lady, and you'll be my _first_ casualty." Piper commented nonchalantly, settling back into the plush armchair as the unnatural calmness disappeared, and she began to inspect her claws casually, "I don't like empaths. Or any other psychics for that matter, so don't try that emotion-manipulation crap with me."

Dr. Johann cleared her throat and hid her surprise by schooling her face into an inquisitive expression, "Your first casualty? Do you plan on having many of them during your career with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Of course not." Piper replied lightly as she glanced up at the doctor with a small smirk and she shrugged one shoulder indifferently, "But shit happens. And when shit goes down with _me_, it tends to get...messy."

"I see." The psychologist murmured as she quickly made a note on the legal pad resting beside the manila folder, which she then flipped open, "One of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s profilers believes you've developed a second personality, one that takes over when you become your Creature persona."

"My _what_?" Piper demanded through a choked laugh, brows raised in an utterly bemused expression.

"Your other self, Ms. Lennart." Dr. Johann responded patiently as she watched the other woman practically convulse in the chair with laughter, "S.H.I.E.L.D. suggested the codename 'Creature' for when you become your-"

The gray-haired woman scoffed and shook her head as she sat back in her chair again, giving the other woman a satirically amused look.

"'_Creature'_ was the best they could come up with? Seriously?" Piper quipped with a sardonic smirk, "That's weak. And just pathetic."

"Do you have a better codename for your secondary form?"

Piper stared at the in bemusement for a moment then she looked over the woman's head at the large bookshelf that took up the wall behind the doctor's desk. Keen gunmetal gray eyes ran over the titles on the spines before alighting on a book on Ancient Egyptian mythology.

A slow, predatory smile spread across the female mutant's face and she met Dr. Johann's dark eyes with her own.

"Sekhmet."

Dr. Johann swallowed and nodded slowly, carefully turning her eyes away from the feral grey orbs to look down at the first page inside the manila folder. Her hand shook slightly as she crossed out the name _'Creature'_ and wrote _'Sekhmet'_ underneath it.

* * *

_"So how've those sessions with the Dr. Johann been?"_

Piper rolled her eyes as Clint Barton's raspy voice, which was rapidly becoming familiar to her the longer she was around him, filtered from the irritating piece of technology inserted in her left ear.

"You're seriously asking me about that _now_?" The female mutant muttered back drily without taking her eyes off the nicely dressed man conversing on the other side of the ballroom with a beautifully disguised Natasha.

She was feeling extremely irritable at the moment. The dark brown wig she was wearing made her head itch and the brown contacts that hid her slit pupils made her eyes ache, so the archer's question was not helping to improve her foul mood. She'd also expected her fourth mission to be a little more exciting than her last three, especially after two-and-a-half months of training with Clint and Natasha and her weekly sessions with Dr. Johann since she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. She was sadly disappointed once more at the lack of any real action and it was starting to get repetitive.

_"Not like we've got anything better to do, Kitten. Nat's got the mark engaged." _The archer replied wryly.

Piper resisted the urge to roll her eyes in exasperation at both Clint's reply and the nickname he insisted on using, as she gave a polite, close-lipped smile to older couple that approached the bar she was working behind.

"What can I get for you and the lady, sir?"

"I'll take scotch on the rocks and a glass of chardonnay for my wife." The man replied cordially in a thick British accent.

She inclined her head in acknowledgement and quickly set about preparing the two drinks, keeping a wary eye on Natasha and the guards that loitered at the edges of the room.

"You call me Kitten one more time and I'm shoving that pretty little bow of yours up your ass." Piper murmured sweetly as she put the bottle of wine and decanter of scotch away after the elderly couple had returned to the crowd, "You do realize that cats eat birds, don't you _Hawkeye_?"

_"You wouldn't-"_

_"Both of you, be quiet." _Natasha's voice hissed from both Piper's and Clint's earpieces, cutting the archer off mid-retort, _"We're working, could you two try an act a little professional?"_

"Yes, ma'am." Piper whispered demurely, busying herself with a couple of glasses that needed to be wiped out while trying to suppress a snicker.

_"Sorry, Nat." _Clint replied at the same time, sounding just as unapologetic as Piper had.

The com-link was silent for several moments as the three performed their separate tasks; Clint keeping an eye on everything outside of the large building from a hidden spot on a neighboring rooftop, Piper observing everything from the inside while watching Natasha's back, and Natasha, herself, was engaging their mark.

The red-haired agent's voice crackled over the com-link, interrupting the silence.

_"The mouse is leaving, headed your way, Sekhmet. You know what to do."_

Piper pressed her lips into a thin line to suppress the malicious smile that wanted to spread across her face and she signaled to the other bartender to take her place before she slipped out from behind the bar. She followed the nicely dressed gentleman Natasha had been talking to earlier out of the ballroom at a languid pace, looking down and patting the vest she wore of the white-button down as if she was looking for something.

The mark's name was Henry Stiles, he was twenty-eight years old and the son of a U.S. government official. And S.H.I.E.L.D. suspected him of trafficking young children to several illegal terrorist organizations that wanted to recreated the super soldier serum. Piper suppressed the growl that wanted to escape her throat as she ambled closer to the man, her hands still patting down her vest and the pockets of her black slacks.

"Oh!" Piper gasped in surprise as she bumped into the mark just as he turned around, their chests colliding and the champagne he held spilling down his front, "I am so sorry, sir. I wasn't paying attention and I was-"

"It's fine." Henry said drily, cutting her rambling off with a scowl, and he swatted her hands away from the wet stain that was rapidly spreading down his nice shirt.

"Let me go get you a napkin or a towel or something." Piper babbled quickly, backing away from him and gesturing with her hands as she spoke, "I'll be right back. Just...just stay here, please, sir. I'll be right back."

Before he could protest, she spun around and headed back to the bar, disappearing into the crowd of finely dressed citizens of high society. A triumphant smirk quirked the corner of her mouth upward and she glanced at the hotel key card she'd stolen from Henry's jacket.

"Gotcha."

_"That was beautiful, Piper." _Clint praised with a small amount of pride in his raspy voice, _"Did you see her, Nat? Our little kitten is growing up."_

"I'm going to kill you." Piper hissed as she slipped the card into the pocket of her slacks, growling quietly as Clint's chuckles and Natasha's brief snicker, "Seriously, you're a dead man, Tweety."

* * *

Piper groaned quietly as she sat down in the plush armchair in Dr. Johann's office, tilting her head back and closing her eyes as her sore muscles slowly relaxed into the plush cushion.

"Tough mission?" Dr. Johann questioned in her warm voice, a small smile playing at her thin lips as she watched her primary patient from over the rim of her reading glasses.

The gray-haired woman grunted and flapped a hand half-heartedly in the psychologist's direction. Dr. Johann smiled more fully and looked down at the report resting in front of her on her desk, a soft sigh escaping her as she read it.

"I see the mission itself was a success, despite the target's unfortunate demise." The dark-haired woman commented in a gentle tone, dark eyes flicking up to see her patient's reaction.

Piper lifted her head and stared blankly at the other woman, one brow raised as if to ask what her point was. Dr. Johann sighed in amused exasperation at the feral woman's obstinacy and she folded her hands over the report on her desk.

"Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Piper shrugged nonchalantly as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes again, "The moron showed up at the hotel room, pointed a gun at Clint, I mean Agent Barton, and me. He then proceeded to shoot at us, so I broke his arm." She made a small noise that might have been a choked off snicker, "And his neck, but that was an accident...Mostly. I didn't expect his neck to be so fragile."

"I see." Dr. Johann sighed and carefully removed her glasses, rubbing at her eyes to rid them of any weariness she felt at her patient's matter-of-fact reply, "Though was it really necessary to kill Mr. Stiles, Piper? His death is the eleventh you've been directly responsible since you've started going on missions with Agents Barton and Natasha seven weeks ago. Granted all of the deaths have been justifiable, but that's still quite the streak."

"He's the thirteenth, if you want to count the two bodyguards from the last mission." Piper corrected mildly before answering the psychologist's initial question, "Agent Barton has a bullet hole in his thigh, so yeah, I'd say it was kinda necessary. Besides Agent Romanoff and I agreed that only we were allowed to hurt the idiot when we were on missions together."

Dr. Johann perked up and stared at Piper with interest, "Are you close to Agents Barton and Romanoff."

She received a disinterested shrug in response to her question and the doctor waited patiently, her hands once again folded on top of her desk.

Piper opened one eye and looked at the other woman before closing it again, "I try to keep them safe-ish on missions and I don't want to murder them in the most bloody and painful way I can think of, if that counts. Well, at least not Natasha. I'm just waiting until I go on a mission alone with Clint at this point. Especially if he calls me kitten one more time."

"I see." Dr. Johann murmured in bemusement, unsure to take the last comment as a joke or not, as she scribbled down the other woman's reply on her legal pad, making a note to herself under it, "Well, that's a vast improvement from your initial opinion of them. Before you were taking every opportunity you had to inflict _some_ kind of injury to your fellow agents."

"Doc, if you think that's an improvement, I'd hate to know what you think a_ regression _is."

Dr. Johann nearly sighed in exasperation at the flippant remark, a small smile tugging at her lips as Piper's obstinacy and snarky attitude reminded her of Director Fury. The similarities between the two astounded her even more than their differences.

* * *

Piper grunted and swore colorfully as she stumbled, the arrow shaft protruding from her left shoulder wiggling obscenely with the movement.

"Gotta move faster than that, Kitten."

"You know what?" The gray-haired woman snapped back at the smirking archer with a scowl, "Shove it up your ass, Tweety Bird."

Clint smirked at her and notched another arrow in his bow, "Please, I doubt that even hurt you."

Piper glared at him as she ripped the arrow from her flesh, rolling her shoulder as the wound knitted together. She dropped into a low crouch, the arrow Clint had shot at her whizzing over her head and hitting one of the training dummies that lined the back wall of the training room with a thunk. Muscles tensing, Piper backflipped out of the way of another arrow that embedded itself in the floor where her foot had been moments before.

As soon as her feet touched the ground again, she spun on her heel and charged towards Clint, who continued firing his less harmful arrows at her while she twisted and jumped to avoid the projectiles. Piper ducked low when she reached the archer, spinning on her hands and swinging her leg around in an attempt to sweep Clint's feet out from under him.

The archer leapt over the appendage and swung at the female mutant with his bow, but Piper was ready for him and lifted her forearm to block the blow. She grabbed his wrist in a vice grip and yanked him towards her as she straightened from her crouch, knocking his bow from his hand and across the room a moment later. Clint grunted as his balance was thrown off by the mutant woman's greater strength, but he quickly hooked his foot around Piper's ankle, sending them both tumbling to the lightly padded floor of the training room when she shoved him away from her.

What original started out as an agility training session quickly dissolved into a wrestling match between the gray-haired woman and the brown-haired archer. Piper growled and Clint grunted as the two rolled across the floor, both trying to get the upper hand and pin the other, to no avail. While Piper was stronger than him thanks to her mutation, Clint had more training and experience that allowed him to remain unpinned despite her greater strength.

"Goddamn." Piper growled as the archer once again managed to roll them over just as she was about to pin him, "Just stay down, dammit!"

"Gotta-_shit_-work for it, Kitten." Clint grunted back, gritting his teeth against the numbness spreading down his thigh after a particularly brutal hit from the gray-haired woman's knee.

He swore again and broke away from the feral woman after she landed a solid punch to his side in a kidney shot. Reacting quickly and before he could get to his feet, Piper grabbed the archer's arm and twisted it into the armlock Natasha had taught her during their last training session a week ago. Clint swore colorfully at her, recognizing the move as one of Natasha's that he had yet to figure out how to slip out of when he spared with the redhead, and he slapped his hand against the floor in submission.

Piper released his arm and rolled to her feet, grinning like the Cheshire cat that just ate the canary, "I win, Tweety."

"Doesn't count." Clint refuted with a mock scowl as he got to his feet, "This was supposed to be _agility_ training, not wrestling."

"_Pfft_," Piper scoffed as she picked up practice bow and tossed it to him, "Whatever helps sooths your ego, Barton."

Clint caught the weapon and opened his mouth to retort, but Natasha's sudden appearance in the training room kept him from speaking. He looked over at the redhead curiously as he retracted his practice bow into its compact form.

"We've got a mission." The redhead said simply and she turned to walk out of the training room.

Clint gave a mock salute to Piper before following after the other assassin. Piper pouted and crossed her arms, resisting the urge to stomp her foot petulantly as she glared at the archer's back. She had been grounded by Fury as punishment for the incident that had resulted in Henry Stiles' impromptu death at her hands over two months ago. Apparently killing the son of a governmental official, no matter how much of scumbag said the guy was, was frowned upon by the agency, especially the Council. Although Fury had pulled her aside and lectured her on the finer points of how it was sometimes important to keep hostiles alive, he'd commended her quick reaction time once he'd finished scolding her like a naughty child.

A small hint of pride welled up inside of Piper at the memory even as she contemplating whether or not to take her frustration and annoyance out on the training room's punching bags when Natasha grabbed her attention by reappearing in the doorway and calling out to her.

"Lennart, Fury wants you at the bridge."

The female mutant perked up instantly, a gleeful grin spreading across her face as she rushed out of the training room. She waved briefly to the redheaded spy as she ran past her in the direction of the bridge. Natasha rolled her eyes slightly and shook her head as she watched the gray-haired woman practically skip down the hall before she turned and headed back to where Clint was waiting for her just down the hall in the opposite direction of the female mutant had gone in.

"What does Fury want with the Kitten?" The archer asked idly as he and the other assassin headed down to the armory to suit up.

Natasha's lips curled up slightly at the nickname her partner had for the feral mutant, "Stark Tower."

Clint looked at her with his brows raised in surprise and Natasha inclined her head in confirmation to his silent question.

"Huh, do you think she's ready for that yet?"

"He thinks it'll be good for her, so does Dr. Johann." Natasha commented with her customary impassiveness, "They believe that being around Stark and Banner will help her with reconnecting with her humanity."

Clint snorted quietly, "Right, the self-deprecating rage monster and the egotistical asshole. That'll make anyone feel human."

A slight smile flickered across the redhead's face at his joke before her expression smoothed into its normal blankness again.

* * *

Piper practically bounced into onto the bridge, her body almost vibrating with excitement at the prospect of finally going on her first solo-mission. Fury glanced over his shoulder at her and gestured towards the conference table before turning back to the computers he was overseeing at the moment.

The female mutant sashayed over to her usually seat at the head of the arrow-shaped table, leaning back in the chair and propping her feet up on the table as she waited for Fury to finish up whatever director duties he was currently taking care of.

She was just starting to get impatient when Fury finally turned around to face her after taking the manila folder that Agent Hill handed to him. Piper let her feet fall to the floor and leaned forward eagerly, folding her arms on the tabletop as she watched Fury approach the table intently.

Fury glanced up from the files he was flipping through and snapped the manila folder shut then he tossed it across the table towards the gray-haired woman. Piper snatched the manila folder up and flicked it open, excitement brimming inside her. Her excitement deflated and her jaw dropped in disbelief as she stared at the first page glaring back at her.

"What. The. _Hell!?_" Piper demanded in annoyance as she plucked up the first page of Bruce's files and waved it around, "Why am I looking at files on Bruce and..." She paused to flip through the pages and her brow furrowed in confusion then irritation, "And _Tony_? Seriously, Nicky, what the hell? I thought I was gonna be debriefed for a mission or something?"

Fury watched her impassively as he waited patiently for her to finish her small rant with his hands clasped behind his back before he answered her, "Banner and Stark _are _your mission, Lennart."

She gave him a look of dumbfounded disbelief then she narrowed her gray eyes on him in annoyance, "Okay, I'll bite, what the hell are you talking about?"

"It's been four months-"

"Four months, two week, and five days if you want to get technical."

The director gave her a stern look and Piper held her hands up in submission, gesturing for him to continue.

"You've been training with Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff, as well as having weekly sessions with Dr. Johann for the _over_ four months now, and according to reports from all three, you've progressed remarkably." Fury stated with an unreadable expression, though Piper could have sworn she saw a flicker of what might have been pride in his remaining eye before he continued, "There have been no civilian causalities on the several missions you've gone on with Agents Barton and Romanoff, and your behavior, while not outstanding in any capacity, has improved to the point where you _aren't _attempting to maim or kill your fellow agents when your own the carrier."

Piper smiled fondly at the memories of the havoc she caused those first few weeks his words conjured up, but she quickly wiped the expression from her face and replaced it with one full of innocence when Fury gave her a flat look of disapproval.

"Well, that's great and all, Nicky. Really it is." The feral female drawled sardonically and she tapped the manila folded in front of her, "But that doesn't explain _this._"

Fury unclasped his hands from behind his back and crossed them over his chest instead, silently scrutinizing the woman sitting at the head of the table for several moments.

"Dr. Johann believes that removing your from a military setting and placing you in one that deals more heavily in normal social interactions will help you reconnect with the your 'empathy and inner humanity' as she put it."

Piper bite her bottom lip to keep from scoffing out loud, instead choosing to roll her eyes upward in bemused exasperation at his words.

"_Riiiiight_, so is this particular assignment the Doc's idea or is it yours? Using me as a way to keep an eye on Tony and, I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here, Bruce in particular?"

Fury smirked slightly at her, "This will be more like bodyguard detail. S.H.I.E.L.D. has picked some interesting chatter regarding Dr. Banner and we believe someone might try to make a play for him. Of course, Agents Romanoff and Barton will be stopping in occasionally to check up on you."

Piper lifted her chin and scowled at the director defiantly, her indignant expression reminiscent of a cat that just got smacked on the nose with a rolled up newspaper, "Say what now? I thought he supposed to be 'in the wind' as you put it. Why is someone after him _now?_ And really, Nicky? Sending the Wonder Twins to check up on me? I thought we were becoming friends."

Fury merely stared at her with an impassive expression, his visible brow quirked slightly upward as he waited patiently. Piper glowered at him mutinously for several more moments then she growled and sat back in her chair roughly, crossing her arms over her chest with a pout.

"Fine, whatever, you win. When do I leave?"

Fury smirked and uncrossed his arms, clasping them behind his back and turning around to walk back to the helm, "You have thirty minutes to pack. A Quinjet is waiting on the flight deck to take you to Stark Tower."

Piper continued to pout as she stood up and began walking towards the sliding door that would open up to the hallway that led to the agents' quarters.

"Oh, and Lennart." Fury called out nonchalantly without looking away from the computer he was working on.

The female mutant paused in front of the sliding door and turned to face the director, one brow raised in an annoyed expression. He turned towards her slightly and reached into the pocket of his trench coat before tossing whatever he pulled from his pocket towards her.

"This belongs to you."

Piper caught the object instinctively, furrowing her brow with curiosity at the soft jingle it emitted when she caught and she slowly opened her fist. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared down at the worn velvet bag in her resting innocently in the palm of her hand. She thought she'd lost the bag and its contents forever after her accidental shift on the Helicarrier over three months ago, but apparently Fury had found it somehow. Piper gently ran her thumb over the worn fabric, feeling the cool metal of the dog tag through the thinning velvet.

"How did you-" She broke off and glanced up at Fury, only to see his back turned towards her as he worked at his computers.

Looking away from him and tucking the velvet bag into the pocket of her training sweats, Piper cleared her throat quietly, frowning in confusion at the odd lump that had formed in her throat as she exited the bridge, heading down the hallway that would take her to her quarters on the Helicarrier.

An unusual giddiness began to well up inside her and a smile slowly spread across her face as she thought about finally seeing her favorite doctor again. With the strange, but not unpleasant warmth filling her chest, Piper practically skipped to her room while humming a vaguely circus-y tune to herself. The agents she passed on the way stepped out of her way and didn't even bother to spare her a second glance, most of them used to the gray-haired woman's odd, and sometimes violent, behavior.

* * *

Tony Stark observed his lab companion curiously as he fiddled with the screwdriver he'd been using to adjust the gauntlet of the new Iron Man suit he was making. Bruce was sitting on the other side of the lab and busily working at one of the computers in the lab, inputting various equations and graphs into the system, and thus was mostly unaware of the billionaire's scrutiny.

In the few months that had passed since the gamma radiation specialist had moved into Stark Tower at Tony's insistence, he'd been rather quiet and introverted, only coming out of his shell when Tony forcefully pulled him out of it. But Tony had noticed that his friend's reticent behavior had been getting worse as more time passed and Piper still didn't show up at the tower, like she had promised four months ago. The billionaire was actually feeling a little pissed on Bruce's behalf the longer Piper was a no-show, especially at the vaguely hopelessness in Bruce's eyes that was becoming more obvious.

Tony was ripped from his idle musings on his friend's love life, or lack thereof, by JARVIS.

_"Sir, there is an incoming call from Director Fury."_

"Patch him through, JARVIS." Tony said as he picked up his custom-made Bluetooth and stuck it in his ear, noticing the way Bruce's shoulders tensed slightly, "What's up, Nick."

_"Hello, Mr. Stark, I just wanted to inform you that a visitor will be arriving at the Tower at oh-seven-hundred tomorrow." _

"Wait, what? Who decided this?" Tony demanded with a frown, "I'm not gonna be playing babysitter to some S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."

_"Trust me, Stark, this isn't a babysitting gig." _

The billionaire furrowed his brows in annoyance and was about to retort when the line went dead. Tony cursed and pulled the Bluetooth from his ear, tossing it onto the worktable and picking up his screwdriver again.

"Seems like we're getting a visitor, buddy."

Bruce glanced over his shoulder at his fellow genius with a curious expression, "Who?"

"No idea." Tony replied with a scowl, extremely annoyed at Fury for not telling him who he'd been playing babysitter to, no matter what Fury said, "Probably some dumbass agent sent to watch us or something. They're supposed to be here at seven tomorrow morning."

Bruce made a noise of acknowledgement and turned back to his computer, listening to Tony grumble and whine under his breath as he worked. He smiled slightly as his friend before focusing on the equations on the screen in front of him. He typed in another sequence mechanically, his mind drifting to what a certain female mutant was doing right now before he shook those thoughts from his head and refocused on his work with an intentness it didn't really need. It didn't really matter what she was doing now, since it was becoming increasingly obvious that she wasn't coming to the Tower. He needed to accept it and move on, no matter how much he hoped he was wrong.

* * *

**Author's Note: Geez, long canon chapter is long and now my fingers are cramped and my head hurts. Despite the pain I'm currently in, I actually like this chapter quite a bit, since it's a very Piper-centric chapter and we get to see more of her character.**

**Also, I want give a huge thank you to everyone that either made a suggestion for Piper's codename or picked which of my own suggestions they liked the best. As you can see, I went with '_Sekhmet_' since I think it fit her the best. There are a few reasons why I went with Sekhmet, and most of htem revolve around the Ancient Egyptian goddess herself. In most myths is the goddess of fire, war, and vengeance, along with healing and medicine. She's also known for being depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, which I thought fit Piper rather perfectly. Another thing about Sekhmet is that she was seen as the protector of the Pharaohs and she would lead them into battle. Now that little fact is what really made me pick her as Piper's codename, since I kinda see Piper as becoming a sort of protector for her fellow Avengers, who are pretty much the Pharaohs of the Marvel universe. I also liked Sekhmet because a reader suggested that a lesser known codename would cause enemies to underestimate her because they don't know what (or who) Sekhmet is, which I thought was a really awesome point, since that particular goddess isn't as well known as Sphinxes are. Although it's still possible that I might change it to something else, but I'm pretty sure Sekhmet is gonna be the permanent codename for Piper.**

**Anyhooties, some Bruce/Piper interaction in the next chapter, but until then I hope everyone liked this chapter!**

**Special THANKS to everyone that faved and/or alerted! You guys are freaking awesome-sauce!**

**SPECIAL MENTIONS!**

**Teddy bear 007: **Sphinx was definitely my second choice, but I think Sekhmet kinda suits Piper better since she enjoys fighting and killing things a little more than something that's considered a protector aught to. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Molly Grace 16: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I actually thought about the 'Lioness' as one of the codenames, but a friend pointed out that, while it is regal and majestic in a sense, it's also kind of obvious for Piper. Piper likes being controversial, and really what's more controversial than naming yourself after a goddess? Anyhooties, I hope you liked the original material in this chapter!

**Fanfan: **Aw thanks so much, that really means a lot that you think that! I try to put a lot of thought into all of my characters, though I'll admit that sometimes I just fly by the seat of my pants with some of them, especially when a story is in it's early stages. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Protagonist of Life: **Haha, I hope you like this chapter!

**Kit-cat99: **Ah, sadly, Piper gives the name to herself, but I think she was a bit dramatic when she did it, which I thought was a little funny. Tony is definitely gonna be making some jokes at her expense though, so that should be hilarious. Haha, I'm glad you liked the little bit of fluff between Bruce and Piper in the last chapter, even if you have to squint and turn your head to the side to see it. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Stinker126: **I'm glad you liked the little, itty-bitty fluff between Bruce and Piper in the last chapter! I still might change Piper's codename to Sphinx, but right now I think Sekhmet is a good fit. Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!

**Golden-priestess: **Thanks, I'm glad you like the story so far! I hope you like this chapter!

**xTonyaJacex: **Thanks, I'm glad you think so highly of my story! I'll admit that the original story was not my best work, especially the way I wrote Piper's character out, but I'm much happier with this version of the story and her character. Sphinx would be my second choice for her codename and when I first started writing this chapter that was the one I almost chose to use, but at the last minute I asked my female parental unit what she thought and she brought up some good points about how Piper is a lot like Sekhmet and personality-wise it would be a better fit for her. Anyhooties, thanks a bunch for your kind review, it means a lot to know that you like Piper's character and her relationship with the other Avengers. So I hope you like this chapter!


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